


I'll Keep Screaming Until You Understand: I've Been Here, Here, Here Forever

by normativejean



Category: General Hospital
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-30
Updated: 2010-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-14 05:42:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/normativejean/pseuds/normativejean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you insane? You want to go running into trouble in an <i>evening gown</i>?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Keep Screaming Until You Understand: I've Been Here, Here, Here Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Girl Saves Boy](http://community.livejournal.com/girlsavesboyfic/) on lj. Deviates from canon somewhere near the end of September 2010. Beta'd by the awesome empressearwig.
> 
> ...omg I wrote a sweeps event.

By the time Maxie and Robin got to the Metro Court, Maxie was in full-blown panic mode.

“I’m late, I’m late! Kate is going to kill me! I still have to make sure the caterers brought the Jameson and not the Cutty Sark, and the sound system was still being hooked up when I came to get you, and who knows if Brenda even finished her notes for each guy, and _oh my god_ , what the hell kind of snarky introduction is she going to give for Jason if I’m not there to stop her—“

“ _Maxie_!” Robin gripped her cousin’s shoulders and forced them to stop walking. “Calm down, ok? The Bachelor Auction won’t have started yet, and you took care of most things before you left, because you _wouldn’t_ have left if you didn’t think you had the time.” She dropped her arms and pulled her coat tighter, trying to ward off the February chill. “And Lulu is there even if you’re not, so any last minute things should be taken care of…”

Robin’s voice trailed off when she noticed Maxie wasn’t looking at her. She was looking in her direction, but somewhere over her shoulder. And Maxie’s face was shifting into the same expression she always got when something bad was happening. “What is it?” she hesitantly asked.

“Robin,” Maxie said slowly. “Why is the lobby dark?”

Turning swiftly, Robin knew immediately what Maxie was talking about. The sidewalk leading up to the main entrance was well lit by street lamps, but everything within the hotel, from the antique gaslights standing beside the double French doors to the table lamps scattered around the lobby, everything was completely dark.

“Can you see if any of the hotel rooms have lights on in them?” Robin asked.

“No.” Maxie pointed up. “Look at the top floor, where the ballroom is. There are still lights on up there.”

That was admittedly very weird. “Maybe the fuses blew for the lower floors.”

“The hotel specifically keeps guest floors hooked up to separate generators to avoid exactly that sort of thing. That way, if something goes wrong with the power, it’s easier to isolate and fix the problem, and fewer guests are inconvenienced.” Off Robin’s startled look, Maxie rolled her eyes. “I used to work here, remember? I used to have to go into the storeroom to stock inventory, and there are a whole bunch of different tunnels beneath the hotel leading to the different grid lines. I think Jax had to get like, special permission from the city to re-build it like that after the fire a few years ago.”

That sounded like Jax; he was Five Stars, all the way, even if the practicalities of something seemed ridiculous. “Well, maybe there’s been a power outage to all those lines.”

“ _Ro_ bin,” Maxie huffed. “That sounds even crazier than the real thing. Don’t tell me you don’t feel it, too. Something’s wrong.”

“I’m not jumping to conclusions like that!” Robin exclaimed. “I mean, what? Practically the whole town is in the ballroom of the Metro Court at the _exact same time_ that something bad is happening?”

Maxie rolled her eyes again. “Please, like that doesn’t happen at least once a year anyway.”

Robin had no response to that, but she was still hesitant to follow Maxie’s line of thought. Because if she was right, and something bad _was_ happening inside the Metro Court, then it meant that a lot of people they both cared about were in trouble.

“Maxie? Why the hell aren’t you upstairs?”

Robin and Maxie spun around as Lulu ran up to them, arms full of file folders. “Lulu?” Maxie gaped at her. “Why aren’t _you_ upstairs? You were supposed to take care of everything while I was gone!”

“I _was_!” Lulu huffed. “And then Kate and Brenda got into a fight about the expense reports for the decorator, and then one of the sound guys from _Elle.com_ started recording them, and Kate wanted to be able to go on the record about ‘fiscal responsibility for corporate social responsibility,’ whatever that means, and so I had to run back to the apartment to get all the files – because I was working on them last night at home, you remember? – and there was an accident on Maple so I had to take the long way back and by the time I found a spot again, I was so late, and what are you _doing_ out here?”

“ _I_ was getting Robin and making sure she didn’t show up in something wife-y!”

“Hey!” Robin protested. “If you hadn’t guilted me at the last minute into coming—“

“Oh, please. You were in _sweat pants_ when I got to your house. That’s just wrong at _any_ time.” Maxie turned back to Lulu. “And why didn’t you have the files with you? You should _know_ that until an event is done, you _always_ have all the paperwork on hand!”

Before Lulu could respond, another voice called to them from across the street. Turning, they saw Sam and Kristina running up the sidewalk. Or rather, Robin noted, walking swiftly; both were wearing the same sort of cocktail dresses and heels that she, Maxie, and Lulu were, and those made running rather difficult.

“Hey, guys,” Sam said, frowning as she got to them. “Why aren’t you inside?”

“Why aren’t _you_ inside?” Maxie’s eyes widened in panic. “Oh, no. If you’re out here, then does that mean that Jason’s not—“

Sam laughed. “Re _lax_ , Maxie.” She braced her arms on her friend’s shoulders. “I sent him on ahead of me, already in his tux and everything.” She quirked an eyebrow. “I also warned him of the consequences if he tried to get out of this.”

That seemed to get Maxie to relax a bit. “Oh, thank God. I was afraid it would just be one more thing going wrong tonight. Although if he wasn’t inside, at least he’s good at breaking into places.”

Sam and Lulu both frowned at that. “What are you talking about?” Sam asked.

“What else is going wrong?” Lulu asked, clutching her folders tighter.

“Why is the building dark?”

They whipped around, all now facing the building. Kristina had wandered away from the group and was staring straight up at the hotel. “Look,” she continued. “All the lights are off except for the top floor.”

“Okay,” Lulu said, blinking slowly. “It wasn’t like that when I left.”

“And it’s definitely not supposed to be like that now,” Sam added. She turned to Lulu. “How long ago did you leave?”

“Maybe fifteen minutes?” Lulu said. “Twenty, tops. I was supposed to take care of things while Maxie was gone, but Kate and Brenda—“

Maxie waved her off. “Yeah, yeah, no one cares. Kate and Brenda are going to argue about everything until the sun explodes.” She looked at Robin, crossing her arms in defiance. “Okay, it’s not just me saying that something weird is going on. _Now_ do you believe me?”

Robin hesitated. She didn’t want to give Maxie more fuel for her paranoia; truthfully, she’d agreed that something wasn’t right from the beginning. But she didn’t want to give voice to thought in this instance.

“Try calling Uncle Mac,” Robin said. “Just tell him what we’re seeing from the outside, and he’ll either tell you it’s nothing to worry about, or he’ll find out if something is wrong. And if there _is_ something wrong, then you know Mac will take care of it.”

Nodding, Maxie pulled her cell phone from her clutch and dialed Mac. No one said anything, but they all huddled closer around Maxie. “Please, _please_ pick up,” she muttered. She bounced nervously, as much to keep the cold at bay as to ease her nerves. Maxie had a sixth sense about trouble.

The phone call dropped almost immediately. Maxie pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the screen, her heart sinking once she did. _Out of range._ “Robin…”

Robin looked at the screen and swallowed. “It doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” she said, voice suddenly hoarse. “Try again.”

“Okay,” Maxie sighed, dialing again. Within seconds of the call connecting, it dropped and the message, _out of range_ , appeared on the screen.

“This isn’t good, Robin,” Sam said, pulling out her own phone. “I’m calling Jason.”

“Maybe it’s just Uncle Mac’s phone.” Robin pulled her own cell out and before she could think about it, was dialing Patrick’s number. _I can’t believe I’m saying this, but please, Patrick, pick up_.

The static on the line turned into a series of beeps, and when Robin looked at her phone, she saw the same message. _Out of range_.

Sam showed the group her phone, which had the same message, and a little icon of a telephone pole with a slash through it. “I can’t get through to Jason.”

Lulu and Kristina exchanged looks, and wordlessly took out their own phones and tried making calls.

“I’m gonna try again from the other side of the building,” Lulu said, dialing again as she walked away. She turned the corner, coming to the side of the hotel. Her call to Lucky was dropped. She tried Dante; that dropped, too. She tried Ethan; _out of range_. “I can’t get anything over here, either!” she shouted before heading back to the group.

“Okay, will you stop pretending that everything’s just fine _now_?” Maxie asked. “You know as well as I do that we should have absolutely no problem getting through to people in a hotel we’re standing ten feet away from. “

A though occurred to Robin. “Try calling the front desk. It’s a landline.”

Maxie said nothing for a moment, but nodded and quickly scrolled through her phone book until she found the number. “Nothing.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and made a disgusted noise. “I’m getting the same problem calling a landline…wait.” Maxie hurried down the sidewalk to the street and tried the call again. “I can get through down here! But it just keeps ringing!” Shoving her phone back in her purse, she rejoined the group in front of the hotel. “My phone starts working again when I get away from the hotel, but I still can’t reach anyone inside.”

Sam puffed out a breath, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. “You think someone’s jamming the cell signals for the hotel?”

Maxie nodded. “Yeah. Kate and Brenda actually reserved most of the rooms this weekend for visiting press and production crews filming the Bachelor Auction, and VIP guests they wanted on-hand to bid. So pretty much everyone who would be in the hotel tonight is in the ballroom. That leaves the rest of the hotel empty, which just happens to be experiencing a really strange power outage at the exact same time that cell phones in and around the hotel are being jammed…”

“Then it’d be short-range jammers,” Sam said. “You can buy those at any electronics store, or online. They’re incredibly easy to get, and small enough to be hidden in the hotel.” She didn’t need to say anything else.

Robin closed her eyes and let her instincts wash over her. As much as she wanted to believe that it was just another normal evening, she knew that Maxie and Sam were right. More than that, she understood very well what they weren’t saying. No one cut power and set up cell phone jammers for fun.

Everybody in the Metro Court was in very big trouble.

***

Dante peered around the wall separating the backstage area from the rest of the ballroom. “Guys, it looks like the natives are getting restless. Why the hell aren’t we starting yet?”

“Because Lulu’s not back yet with the expense reports, and Kate and Brenda are still about three seconds away from catfighting across the stage.” Michael didn’t even look up from his position against the wall; he just stood there, arms crossed over his chest, waiting and trying to keep calm.

“Seriously,” Dante insisted. “No one else thinks it’s weird that we haven’t started?”

Lucky snorted. “You haven’t been to any big Port Charles events before, have you? Nothing _ever_ goes according to plan.”

Steven nodded in agreement. “Elizabeth’s told me some stories. Apparently the Nurses Balls used to cause quite a commotion.”

“The what?” Ethan asked. He exchanged confused looks with Johnny, who clearly had no idea either.

“The Nurses Ball,” Lucky said. “The biggest party Port Charles has ever seen. At least until the next one. We haven’t done them for years, but they used to be huge fundraisers that the whole town participated in, like this one.” He glanced at Jason, who said nothing, but nodded. Lucky knew he had his own memories of Nurses Balls past. “Anyway, they’re a perfect example of how nothing ever goes quite right in this town.”

Dante absently nodded, but he was watching the audience start to get restless. He looked at his watch, and noted they were nearly ten minutes passed the starting time – a time that Lulu had practically beaten into his head.

Johnny watched Dante watch the audience, and wondered if there wasn’t more to this than Lucky’s casual dismissal of the delay. He knew Maxie and Lulu; it wasn’t like either of them to be this late to something so important to them. Johnny tried to keep the knot in his stomach from growing. He and Jason exchanged a look, and Jason was clearly having similar thoughts as him.

“That’s weird,” Matt muttered, drawing everyone’s attention. “I just tried calling Maxie, but I can’t get a signal. It keeps saying ‘out of range.’ Same thing happens when I try to call Robin.’’

As if with one mind, the rest of the group pulled their cell phones out and began attempting to dial. The results were the same for all their calls: _out of range._

“That’s so weird,” Matt said again. “We’ve all got no reception back here?”

Lucky shook his head, snapping into cop mode. “No way. None of us can make calls to anyone inside or outside this room.” Off the others’ looks, he explained, “I just tried calling Mac. He’s right out front in the ballroom, and I got the same message as when I called Lulu.”

“Okay,” Dante said, coming back to the group. “This just moved way beyond weird or coincidence.”

“You’re thinking jammers?” Johnny asked, already knowing the answer.

“Wait, what?” Steven asked. “How did you get from ‘we’re starting late’ to ‘something’s gone horribly wrong’? You seriously think someone’s set up, what, cell phone jammers?”

Both cops nodded. “And that means that someone set _up_ the jammers to keep people from being able to contact the outside world,” Lucky said.

“Who do we know for certain isn’t here?” Dante asked.

“Maxie and Lulu,” Lucky replied.

“Robin was with Maxie,” Matt said.

“Sam went to pick up Kristina,” Jason said, rushing to the edge of the backstage area and scanning the crowd. “I don’t see either of them.”

Lucky scrubbed a hand over his forehead. “Well, at least we know that whatever’s wrong is on its way to being fixed already.”

“How do you figure?” Ethan asked.

“Robin and Maxie basically grew up in the PCPD,” Lucky explained. “They know how to call in whatever resources are necessary. Lulu can smell trouble a mile away, and Sam is…Sam.”

“Yeah, and they’re also the people most likely to do something stupid if there’s a problem.” Michael sighed and pushed off the wall, coming to stand near Jason. “I mean, Sam’s always ready to jump in, and Lulu is too much like my mom for her own good. Maxie is reckless, and Kristina…” He sighed again.

Ethan chuckled. “Yeah. Kristina doesn’t exactly know how to sit back and let other people handle things.”

Jason shook his head. “If Robin’s with them, she’ll keep things under control,” he assured Michael. “She doesn’t know how to do anything stupid. And Sam can take care of herself in any situation.”

“Doesn’t matter what’s happening outside,” Johnny said. “We need to figure out what’s going on in here, and we can’t have the crowd out there panic.” He looked at Jason. “I say we go check things out.”

“Uh-uh, no way,” Dante said. “Lucky and I’ll go; we’re the cops. This is our job.”

“Yeah, and if something _does_ happen, you’re gonna be needed for crowd control,” Johnny argued. “Given the people out there, Jason and I are the least likely to be missed for a while. We can take a look around the hotel and if something’s wrong, either report back, or maybe even try to fix it.”

“Just don’t do anything stupid yourselves,” Steven said. “If you’re right and someone _is_ jamming the cell phones in this room, then they can’t be up to any good, and they’re probably inside the Metro Court.”

Johnny waved him off, motioning for Jason to head through the backstage area to the service elevator. “We’re going to check out the rest of the hotel,” he said. “You guys get Brenda and Kate, and find a way to stall for time.

***

“Screw it,” Sam said. “Something’s wrong. I’m going in there.” She marched towards the front doors.

“Are you insane?” Maxie asked, following her. “Something _is_ wrong, and you want to go running into trouble in an _evening gown_? That’s fine if it’s off the rack, but I got you something from _Crimson_ ’s couture closet for tonight.”

Sam whipped around to face her. “I have to do _something_ , Maxie! Do you have a better idea?”

Lulu raised a hand. “What are the chances those doors are even unlocked?”

Sam and Maxie blinked, looked at each other, and rushed towards the doors. The lobby was so dark they couldn’t even see inside. They each tried one of the double doors, and neither of them budged.

“It’s even got the security bolt,” Maxie said, bending down to look more closely at the locked doors. “If that’s engaged, then it means the entire hotel security system’s been tripped. All the doors to the building are locked and bolted.” At the others’ astonished looks, she rolled her eyes. “What part of ‘I used to work here’ confuses people? After the _last_ time something terrible happened at the Metro Court, Jax and Carly invested in some serious security upgrades.”

“So what are we supposed to do, then?” Kristina asked.

“We call the police.”

The four women turned at Robin’s voice. She had moved down to the end of the hotel entryway, right at the street corner. Her cell phone was pressed against one ear, and her words to whoever she was speaking to were clipped and efficient, explaining the problem in a few sentences. She hung up, and walked back to the group.

“No messing around,” she said firmly. “Not after last time.”

“Why did you do that?” Sam asked. “Now when a whole bunch of cop cars show up, whoever’s inside is going to know that something’s gone wrong. Who knows how they’ll react?”

Robin defiantly crossed her arms over her chest. She refused to back down, not about this. Not after the last time. “That’s exactly my point. _We don’t know_ what’s going on inside. All we know for certain is that _something_ is wrong. And whatever it is can’t have been going on for very long, since Lulu was here just 20 minutes ago. How do we know that bringing the cops in early on won’t make things better?”

“Because it never does!”

“Says you,” Robin said. “And Jason. But speaking as someone who nearly _died_ the last time something like this happened at the Metro Court, _I_ say we err on the side of caution _.”  
_

“I’m with Robin,” Maxie said, moving to stand beside her cousin. Sam was her friend, but Robin was right. Without knowing what was going on in there, the best course of action was to let the professionals deal with it.

Lulu stepped up to Maxie. “Sorry, Sam. But there’s already a bunch of cops and guys who can take care of themselves in there. If something’s happening, the police out here will probably just end up helping them take care of the problem themselves.”

Sam looked at her sister. “Kristina?”

Kristina said nothing for a moment, staring at the rest of the group with wide eyes. She bit her lip, looked down, and took a deep breath. Looking back up, she said, “We should go with Robin. If I had called the police right away, none of the mess with Keifer would ever have happened. If Dad and Jason had called the police, Michael wouldn’t have been sent to prison for participating in the murder cover-up. I just…there’s too many consequences for not calling the police.”

Sam threw her hands up in the air, before turning a frown on Robin. “You’d better hope you’re right about this. Otherwise, a whole lot of people that we care about just got into even bigger trouble.”

***

Claire was out of the police car even before it pulled to a complete stop in front of the hotel. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded, marching right up to the assembled women. She addressed Sam first. “What’s Jason done? Or had done to him?”

“Now, see, why would you assume Jason’s done anything?” Sam jumped on the defensive. Claire always seemed to bring out that reaction in her.

Robin stepped between them, drawing the attention away from Sam and hopefully defusing the situation. “I’m the one who called, Claire. Jason didn’t do anything. As far as we know, he’s in just as much trouble as everyone else in the ballroom.”

Claire glared at Sam for a moment longer, but turned her attention to Robin and got down to business. “Okay, Robin. Tell me everything you know so far.”

“Maxie and Lulu were in the building about 30 minutes ago and everything was fine,” she said, “so whatever happened, happened in the last half-hour. We all arrived here about ten minutes ago and saw that all the lights in the hotel were off except for in the ballroom, and the security bolts had been engaged, which, according to Maxie, locks all the doors to the hotel. We’ve been trying to call people inside the ballroom, but every call is dropped and said to be out of range. You can’t get a signal until you move to at least the street.”

Claire nodded. “So you’re thinking that someone engaged the locks on purpose, cut the lights everywhere except where all the people are, and are jamming the phone lines?”

“I know if sounds crazy,” Lulu said, “but think about it: the entire hotel was rented out specifically for the Bachelor Auction, so all the guests are up in the ballroom right now, and everything is taking place there. It’d be the perfect time to—“

“To take advantage of the fact that all of Port Charles society is trapped in one place, in a fairly controllable environment,” Claire finished. She offered the group a tight smile. “I’ve been reading up on this town. You don’t sound crazy at all.”

“So you believe us?” Kristina fidgeted in place until a gentle squeeze on her arm from Sam stilled her. “You think something’s wrong, too?”

“I think it’s better safe than sorry in Port Charles.” Claire walked back to the two police cars that had escorted her to the Metro Court, and the group could just barely make out her hushed, urgent words to the cops: “Get whatever backup you can, and get them down here now.”

***

Johnny glared at Jason’s back as they made their way down the darkened stairwell. Once they had left the ballroom, they had travelled down the service elevator to the floor below, intending to check the hotel floor by floor. However, as soon as the elevator doors had opened, they had been plunged into darkness, with only the dim light from the street coming in through the window at the opposite end of the hall illuminating their way. The entire hotel except for the ballroom was dark, and no words had been exchanged to tell them that something was definitely very wrong.

No words had been exchanged at all, in fact. It was just as well they hadn’t brought guns tonight. Jason was just as likely to shoot Johnny as any trouble they came across.

At the third floor of the hotel, they did the same thing they had done every floor previous: Jason exited the stairwell first, and then Johnny followed him as they checked around the corner to look down the northwest hallway. They were moving to repeat the pattern for the south hallway when Jason suddenly stiffened and held up a hand. He motioned for Johnny to bend below him and peer around the corner, and then Johnny saw what had put Jason on edge:

A man standing by the hall window, watching the street. And he was holding a very big gun.

“Damn,” Johnny whispered. He backed up around the corner and straightened. “He’s just a guard. They probably have him watching that side of the building for any cops or people checking out the hotel.”

Jason nodded. “He must be in here with a whole crew. Since no one’s gone after the ballroom directly, they must be somewhere else in the hotel.” He glanced back at the guard, then turned back to Johnny. “We’re only gonna get one shot at this before he calls the rest of his people and tells them whatever they’re doing has been compromised. I’ll sneak up on him and overpower him—“

“With what?” Johnny scoffed. “Your sparkling personality? We’re unarmed, and he has a _submachine gun._ Just what do you think you’ll be able to do?”

“I have to do something!” Jason hissed. “And unless you have a better idea, you’ll follow my lead.” Not bothering to wait for an answer, Jason checked the guard once more and, seeing his attention focused on the window, ducked around the corner.

Johnny rubbed his eyes. “I swear to God, Jason,” he muttered. “If I die tonight, I’m coming back and haunting you.” But with no other choice, he followed Jason down the hall towards the unsuspecting guard.

***

Within ten minutes of Claire’s arrival, several more police cars and a mobile command unit had arrived and parked across the street from the hotel. Robin and the others had moved behind the command line and had been working with Claire trying to fill in the timeline for what must have happened to the hotel. They were all on edge, but no fighting had broken out, and everyone, for once, was on the same page.

Then they heard the gunshots.

***

Johnny glanced over at Jason, but didn’t turn his attention away from the guard pointing his gun at them.

“So,” Johnny said casually as they raised their arms in surrender, “this is going well.”

***

“What was that?” Claire called out. “Someone get me a location for where those shots came from!”

Sam turned to the others. “Still think not going in was a good idea?”

***

The guard kept the gun pointed at Johnny and Jason. With one hand on the trigger, he pulled plastic ties out of a vest flap with the other. He motioned for them to enter the reading room off to the side. Jason at first refused to move, but the guard fired another shot, this one just above his head. It hit the wall between Jason and Johnny.

“Just go,” Johnny said quietly. “We’re no good to anyone if we die now.”

Jason pressed his lips into a thin line, but finally nodded and followed Johnny into the room. The guard followed them in, and before either of them could turn around, Johnny saw him slam the butt of the gun into the back of Jason’s head. Jason fell to the ground, unconscious.

“What the hell!” Johnny spun around and backed up as far as he could from the guard. “We’re doing what you want!”

The guard sniffed disdainfully. “He bothers me.”

Johnny noted a slight shaping on his vowels. Midwestern, most likely. It fit with his stocky build, sandy hair, and pale skin.  Johnny figured he should catalogue everything he could about the guy, since he was most likely about to be knocked unconscious, too. Eventually, he’d either be helping to track the guy down or giving a statement to the police so they could.

The guard finished securing Jason’s hands behind his back and pushed him up against the wall. It was only for a moment, but Johnny saw his back turn, and he hoped it would be enough of a chance to take him by surprise.

Johnny rushed forward, tackling the guard to the ground. But he didn’t let go of the gun, which Johnny saw too late was clipped to his vest.

“Crap,” he said, just before the guard pushed him off and brought the back of the gun down against his head as well.

***

In the tunnels below the Metro Court, four men gathered around the giant vault entrance; two were crouched on the cold cement floor, hooking up all manner of gadgets to the vault door. The other two stood off to the side, dividing their attention between the work on the vault and the empty hallway they’d entered through. They had made sure not to start until everyone in the hotel would be sequestered in the ballroom on the top floor for the next several hours, but it never hurt to be too careful. It was heist of money and valuables, just like several others this crew had run, but that didn’t mean their leader would let them get complacent. That was how mistakes were made.

That was what got people like them sent to prison.

No more than three sentences had been exchanged in the fifteen minutes since they’d secured the hotel: _“Can you get it open?”_ , _“Yes, but it’ll take some time to disable all the alarms and redundancy systems,”_ and _“Alright, then get started.”_ They’d left the two other members of their crew in their guard positions around the hotel – one in the lobby, watching the front entrance, and one on the third floor, watching the side and back alleyways– and the rest of them had arrived at the vault.

The leader’s radio suddenly crackled into life at his hip. He lifted the radio to his mouth and turned it on. “What the hell’s going on? You’re not due to check in for another five minutes.”

 _“I just took down two guys in tuxes who tried to surprise me. They’re secured, but I figured you should know.”  
_

The leader cursed, raising a hand to slap the concrete wall, but stopping himself just before the rage took over. He flicked his radio on again. “Check the front entrance. Now!”

There were several moments of tense silence in the vault hallway; the men paused their work on the locks and alarm system as they waited to find out whether their well-planned robbery was going south. Finally, the tinny voice of the second crew member who they’d left watching the main floor crackled over the radio.

 _“I’m seeing cop cars from the lobby windows. They’re all down the drive from the hotel, across the street, but they’re definitely setting up a barricade and command post out there.”_

“Shit!” This time, the leader _did_ slam his fist against the wall. He hissed a breath out through his teeth, and then another one, and another, as he fought to control his anger. They had planned everything perfectly! How the hell had the cops gotten tipped off? No one in the ballroom could call out, the hotel was completely locked down, and the entire town knew that it had been rented out for the big charity event that night, so even the lack of lights shouldn’t have seemed odd.

What the hell had gone wrong?

“Looks like our plans are changing,” the leader said, turning back to his crew. He addressed the two men working on the vault first. “How much more time before you can get in?”

The men looked at each other before answering. “At least another half-hour,” one of them said. “It takes time to run the password decryptions without tripping the vault’s computer system and alarms.”

The leader nodded. “Alright, then. We just need to buy a half-hour, plus more time than we’d planned to get the goods out of there.”

The other robber standing guard frowned. “Why more time than we’d planned? We have it timed perfectly for how much each of us can carry.”

“Because it’s going to take a lot longer with just one person loading everything from the vault, especially if we have to wait for the cops to get us a new vehicle.”

No one said anything; they all knew the contingency plan in this case was the riskiest, but also the only way out now.

“You two,” the leader said, pointing at two crew members, “come with me, and put your ski masks on. You,” he pointed to the remaining man working on the vault, “keep going here.” He flicked his radio on again and addressed the entire crew. “Regular radio contact, every twenty minutes.” He met the other robbers’ eyes. “If you need us, we’ll be in the ballroom.”

***

“Okay, good. Keep me posted.”

Claire finished talking to one of the police officers and walked over to the group of women who hovered at the edge of the police barricade. She didn’t look happy, but she was calm; it did little to assure the group, however. They all knew what gunfire meant:

The situation had officially gotten out of control.

“As far as we can tell, the shots came from the west side of the building,” she said, looking at each woman in turn. “One of the lower floors.”

“So, not where everybody in the hotel is supposed to be,” Maxie said. “Any idea what you’re going to do now?”

Claire pursed her lips and motioned over one of the uniformed cops. “We’re going to call this number,” she quickly scribbled something down on a business card and handed it to the officer, “and call in all the back-up this side of the Canadian border. I’m not taking any chances in this town, not after everything I’ve seen and heard about.”

From beside her sister, Kristina nervously spoke up. “It could just be nothing,” she said, looking up at Sam for support. “Right? I mean, it could just be one person. With all the people in the ballroom, they can handle one person, right?”

Sam sighed and wrapped her arm around Kristina. “I want to believe that too, Krissy, but you know as well as I do that this is most likely a lot more serious than that.”

“But Mom’s in there,” Kristina said. “And Michael. I can’t lose them, Sam, I can’t!” She teared up and buried her face against Sam’s shoulder as she fought back to compose herself.

“Why do you have to call in back-up?” Lulu asked. “Can’t the SWAT team just break in?”

Claire coughed slightly and averted her eyes. Maxie had no such trouble voicing her frustration. “Because Mayor Floyd, in all his infinite wisdom, cut the PCPD budget as an ‘incentive’ for Mac to start taking corruption more seriously.” At the group’s astonished stares, she stomped her foot in frustration. “ _What_? I pay attention to things. Besides, Mac was _pissed_ when it happened.” She raised an eyebrow in challenge to Claire. “And _somebody_ who came to town to help fight the mob didn’t exactly do the department any favors there, _did she_?”

“Look.” Claire pulled herself up and met Maxie’s glare. “I’m not saying that things couldn’t have gone better, but what did you want me to do? It was bad enough when Michael went to prison—“

“Not just him,” Sam muttered, though she was ignored.

“And so I wasn’t about to start witch-hunting the mob every time something went wrong in this town,” Claire finished. “You can yell at me all you want later. Right now, I’ve got to—“

“Ms. Walsh?” A detective rushed over to the group and held out a cell phone to Claire. “You need to take this call. There’s a man who says he’s just taken the Metro Court ballroom hostage.”

***

Claire had immediately attached a recorder to the phone, walking back to the police command station to confer with the others in charge as she tried to gather information from the man on the phone who claimed to have taken over the Metro Court.

That had left the civilian women standing off to the side of the police barricade, too far away to hear Claire’s conversation with the man on the phone, but close enough to see the stress that radiated from everyone listening to the conversation. Sam very forcefully left Kristina in the care of a uniformed officer before rejoining the group.

“ _Still_ think going in ourselves in a bad idea?” She glanced testily at Robin and Lulu.

Lulu folded her arms over her chest and ducked her head, avoiding the group’s eyes. “I’ve gotta admit, none of this is sounding good.” She looked up at Maxie. “Do we really not have anyone who can go in?”

Maxie and Robin both shook their heads. “I guess Floyd figured that SWAT was expendable, since no matter what happens, mob violence keeps coming.” She threw a side eye at Sam. “Thank your boyfriend for that, by the way.”

“Yeah, my boyfriend who is in just as much trouble as the cops in there,” Sam shot back. “Including your dad.”

Robin wrapped an arm around Maxie’s shoulders. “We know,” she said. “We’re all just nervous right now.”

The fight seemed to leave Sam as quickly as it had come. “I know,” she sighed. “I don’t mean to jump on you, Maxie.” She turned back to Robin. “But my point still stands: who knows how long it’ll be before any back-up who are equipped to get inside can get here.”

Robin bit her lower lip. “The nearest FBI field office that Claire could draw resources from is in Buffalo, and the Hostage Rescue Team is based out of Virginia. No matter what, we’re looking at a couple of hours before help arrives.”

“So what do we do?” Lulu asked. “I mean, let’s face it: the cops best suited for infiltration are already trapped inside, and all the other people who might be able to do something,” she cast a quick nod to Sam, “are in there too.”

“I can get inside,” Sam said. “I did it before.”

“You’re not going in alone,” Maxie argued. “We don’t know _anything_. How many criminals are in there? What kinds of weapons do they have? Is anybody hurt that you’d put in more danger by going in?” She squeezed Robin’s arm and pulled it gently from her shoulders. “Things got so bad last time, and it was because everybody who tried to help did it on their own.”

Robin smiled at her cousin. “Things were bad for a lot of reasons, Maxie. It’s no use trying to lay blame anywhere except Jerry Jacks.”

Lulu shook her head. “Maxie’s right, though. If we’re going to do anything, we have to do it together.” She smirked and snorted out a small chuckle. “I mean, let’s face it. Between us we’ve probably got the equivalent of SWAT training, anyway.” The smirk slid into a genuine smile as she looked at Robin. “I mean, hell! You could just go Markham Islands on their asses.”

“Huh?” Sam looked from Lulu to Robin.

“I don’t think a machete would be very effective against people with guns,” Robin said, though she had to acknowledge the truth in Lulu’s assessment: she and Maxie had been trained by Mac, and Robin by her parents before him; they could pass all Police Academy training with flying colors, and she knew that both she and Maxie had never forgotten the lessons they’d learned in youth. Sam got herself into dangerous situations on any given day ending with “y” and lived to tell about it, and Robin knew that Lulu had picked up enough of a mix of street smarts and basic weapons training to handle herself.

“You sure seemed to know what you were doing with that machine gun, too,” Lulu said. “Which really just proves my point. No one else might realize it, but we’re probably the best suited of anybody still outside the hotel to get in there and try to do something.”

Robin stared at Lulu. “Oh my god, you’re serious.”

Maxie tugged on her arm. “Robin, it’s _Mac_.” She held her eyes. “And whether you want to admit it or not, you care about a lot more people who are trapped in there than just him.”

“Maxie…”

“ _Robin_.” Determination shined in Maxie’s eyes, and Robin found she couldn’t look away from something that intense. “You and I both know that you’re more probably more qualified than most cops in the PCPD for something like this,” she said quietly. Her face softened but her eyes lost none of their intensity. “I know you don’t like thinking like you were raised, but your parents and mine made sure we could take care of ourselves no matter what life threw at us. And they also raised us to take care of the people we love.”

She was right; Robin _knew_ that Maxie was right. That didn’t make it sit any better with her, but it was enough to allow Robin to push aside the part of her mind that was screaming _“Run, run! Just run away and don’t look back! Think about Emma!”  
_

Because the truth was, if Robin forced herself to be honest, she _was_ thinking about Emma. Robin had known since her daughter’s birth that her little girl would one day learn the same things she had been taught; not only how to defend herself, but the importance of protecting others. That standing up for people who couldn’t protect themselves was, quite simply, the right thing to do. And Robin knew she wouldn’t be able to raise her daughter with a clear conscience if a failure to act of this magnitude weighed on her soul.

She’d been raised by the best. Now it was time to prove it.

“Are we sure?” Robin asked. She would do whatever was necessary to help all the people she loved who were trapped inside, but she wouldn’t go along with anyone who wasn’t rooted in the same determination.

Maxie, Lulu, and Sam nodded. “We’re sure,” Lulu said.

Robin sighed. “Right.” Without waiting for anyone to jump in, she walked back to the police command station and pulled Claire aside. “What do they want?” she asked quietly.

Claire hesitated for only a moment before bringing Robin into the loop. “According to the man I spoke to, who claimed to be the leader of a crew of robbers who were trying to take advantage of the Metro Court’s being entirely occupied on the ballroom floor tonight in order to rob the vault in the basement, two men tried to attack one of his guards watching out for suspicious activity. The men were subdued by his guard, and the team had to improvise.”

Robin swallowed harshly. “Do we know who…?”

“No,” Claire said. “All I know is that the leader claims that Mac and Alexis were the ones who told him how to get in contact with the police out here, but I couldn’t get confirmation on anything about who may have gone after his crew member.”

Robin nodded and met Claire’s eyes. “What are they asking for?”

“An hour’s time to finish what they started, a vehicle with no plates, and no police interference between here and the docks.” Claire held up a hand to stave off Robin’s question. “I’ve already got people searching the harbor for a boat that could possibly be theirs, not to mention whatever car or van they must have brought here. But that will take time, too, and I’m sure you know the standard procedure for negotiating with hostage takers.”

Robin nodded again. “Establish a rapport, and buy time however you can, up to and including making the arrangements they’re demanding.” She frowned. “It’ll take more than an hour for SWAT to get here from Buffalo, and HRT would be useless given that time frame.”

“I know.” Claire eyed Robin speculatively. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking,” Robin said carefully, knowing how this dance would have to go, “that you can’t be held responsible for the actions of a few private citizens who manage to get around the police barricade.”

For a moment, Claire said nothing, but then she chuckled softly. “Mac’s told me about you. You and Maxie,” she amended. “He’s so proud of everything you girls have been taught, and that you’re as good as any cop. And the way Lucky talks about Lulu, and how his father raised them…” She nodded at Robin. “I can’t officially sanction anything. No weapons, no support, nothing can come from the PCPD or the FBI. But I can look the other way, and keep doing everything I can out here to buy time for you guys to get in there and do something about these bastards.”

It was Robin’s turn to chuckle, though hers was quite a bit darker. “Don’t worry about arming us. I’ve got a feeling that between us, we could take over a small country.”

“Or at the very least, make it through a night in Port Charles?”

“Something like that.” Robin turned to head back to the other women, but caught Claire’s eye once more over her shoulder. “No one wishes this had turned out differently more than I do.”

“Be careful,” Claire said. “You’ve got…” she looked at her watch, “maybe thirty minutes before he calls again to ask for an update on his demands. We’ve narrowed down the probable location of the gunfire to the third or fourth floors, and we’re fairly certain that they must still have people working on the vault. That plus needing a few people to secure the ballroom all suggests a decently-sized group of violent men with guns.”

Robin shrugged and started walking away. “Like I said, don’t worry about us.”

She was quite certain that of all the people in this scenario to worry about, she and the others were about to gain the upper hand.

No one messed with her family.

***

The other women hadn’t needed to be told anything more than _“We’re going,”_ before running off to their cars to change clothes. Maxie had called after them to meet in the West parking lot to figure out a plan before she and Robin had also headed back to their car.

Luckily, Robin still always seemed to have clothes in her car, as she was constantly on the go between her own house and Mac’s, so she and Maxie had had no trouble finding appropriate cat burglar outfits.

( _“Well, at least black is slimming,” Maxie had muttered. “But if you ever tell anyone that I wore your hospital clogs, my career in fashion will be over.”_ )

Robin had pulled her lock-picking kit from her glove compartment and tossed Maxie her emergency flashlight. They ran to the West parking lot where they knew Mac’s car would be – he always preferred to be on a side street with some cover, but still with easy access to both a main road and a building in care he needed a quick getaway or cover; sometimes Robin forgot that once upon a time, her uncle had been happy just owning a restaurant – and where they also knew they could find some supplies.

They entered the lot at the same time that Sam and Lulu rejoined them. “We’re making a quick stop at Mac’s car,” Maxie told them. “He should have a ton of useful stuff lying around.”

“I love how you make it sound like he’s got a little weapons factory in his backseat or something,” Robin muttered. “Did either of you have anything with you that could help us?”

Sam nodded as they reached Mac’s car. “I’ve got two guns, lock-picks, and some extra ammo.”

Robin reached out a hand. “I can take one of the guns. Chances are, we’ll have to split up at some point, and it would be better if we could ensure that as many of us are armed as possible.”

Sam still looked unsure, pulling Robin aside as Maxie unlocked the car. “You sure about this? You’ve never struck me as the weapons type.”

Wordlessly, Robin held out a hand for one of the guns. Before Sam could say anything, Robin pulled out the magazine to check that it was full, snapped it back into place, and secured the pistol lock before sticking it into her waistband.

Sam let out a low whistle. “I stand corrected.” She handed over an additional magazine, smirking slightly. “I guess appearances can be deceiving, huh?”

Taking the proffered item, Robin chuckled ruefully. “You have no idea.”

“Hey, we’ve kind of hit the jackpot over here!” Maxie called. “So let’s get a move on and get inside.”

They walked back to the car where Maxie and Lulu stood, rifling through the open trunk. “There was another gun in the glove compartment, which I gave to Lulu, because gunpowder residue is _impossible_ to get out of clothes,” Maxie said.

“Ah, thanks for that,” Lulu muttered.

“And back here,” Maxie continued as if Lulu hadn’t spoken, “we’ve got some more flashlights,” she passed them out, “some plastic tie thingies—“

“Disposable handcuffs,” Sam said. “We can definitely use those.”

“There are also some canisters here,” Maxie said, holding one out to Robin. “Any idea?”

Robin nodded. “Stun grenades. We should take a couple, but I really hope we don’t have to use them.”

Maxie continued sifting through the back of the car. “A taser.” She held that out to Lulu as well, who was putting all the non-firearms into a small satchel. “And a…” Maxie frowned and held something up, similar in size to the canisters, but shaped quite differently. “A giant bullet?”

“Oh, hey,” Robin said, taking it from Maxie. “I remember Uncle Mac telling me about this. It’s called a laser dazzler. It’s a non-lethal crowd control device that temporarily blinds someone.”

“Ooh! Mine!” Maxie snatched it back. At her cousin’s surprised look, she added, somewhat sheepishly, “I like the name. Weapons never have pretty names.”

“What about for me?”

Four heads whipped around at the voice that echoed softly from behind them. Kristina moved to stand fully beneath the light of the lamppost, arms crossed over her chest and a look of grim determination pasted on her face. She too had changed out of her formal dress and into something better suited for skulking through stairwells and rescuing hostages.

“Kristina, what the hell are you doing here?” Sam frowned, moving to confront her sister. “What happened to the cop I left you with?”

Kristina snorted. “I told him I had to go to the bathroom. When he tried to insist on walking me to that drugstore around the corner, I told him I was having ‘women’s issues,’” she made little air quotes with her hands before re-crossing her arms. “I swear, you mention that to any guy and he runs away like he’s on fire.” She shrugged. “I followed you from your car to here. So, I repeat: what do I get?”

Sam gaped at Kristina, before shaking her head and snapping out of it. “ _You_ get to go back to the police command center. Better yet, take the car and go back to Carly’s house. Molly’s staying there with Morgan and Josslyn tonight.”

“Um, no?” Kristina cocked her head to the side. “I have got _way_ too many people inside that I care about, not to mention you trying to go in there. I’m not leaving. I’m going to help, too.”

“Kristina, no offense,” Robin said, stepping forward, “but we’re all at least capable of defending ourselves in there. I think Sam’s just worried about you."

“I can take care of myself,” Kristina huffed.

“Kristina,” Sam sighed. “Please, go home. I can’t be worried about you and about whatever we might find in there.”

Kristina shrugged. “You don’t have to worry about me. But if you don’t let me come, I’ll go back over to the police barricade—“

“Thank God,” Sam muttered.

“—And I’ll start making such a commotion about what you’re doing that Claire will _have_ to tell the police everything, and then you’ll _all_ be in trouble.”

The other four just stared, dumbfounded, and Kristina allowed her lips to quirk up slightly. Finally, Maxie and Lulu both snorted back laughter.

“She’s good,” Lulu said.

“Too good,” Maxie added. “She remind you of anyone?”

Lulu blinked innocently. “You couldn’t possibly be referring to either of us.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh it up, you guys,” Sam waved them off. She frowned at her sister. “This is serious, Krissy.”

“You think we’re not being serious?” Lulu asked. “I wasn’t much older than Kristina when I followed my dad to the Markham Islands.”

“You also had a bunch of people _much_ more used to danger than you watching your back,” Robin said. “Even if most of them were causing the trouble we were trying to stop.”

Lulu nodded. “You mean, people like you?” Robin opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Lulu gently nudged Sam to look at her. “I’m not kidding, we were staring down men with guns there, too. Robin helped keep me safe. And Dillon, and Patrick, and our dads,” she added.

“My mom was the one doing most of the heavy lifting,” Robin reminded her, before sighing and shaking her head. “Lulu’s right, though, Sam. She was Kristina’s age when she went chasing her dad halfway around the world when he had a half-million-dollar bounty on his head.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better about taking my little sister into a _hostage_ situation?” Sam asked.

Robin shook her head. “Of course not. But we’re seriously pressed for time, and if we’re going to do anything at all, we have to do it now. According to the contact schedule Claire’s on with the leader of the hostage takers, we’ve got _maybe_ twenty minutes before she has to start actually working on meeting their demands. That’s a very small window.”

“And I’m not kidding,” Kristina added. “Either take me, or I’m running back to the cops and _none_ of you are going in.”

Sam glared at her sister for a moment longer, before seemingly coming to a decision and sighing. “Fine, but you’re not going to be unarmed.” She turned back to Lulu. “Give Krissy the taser.” When Kristina started protesting, Sam shut her up quickly. “Nuh-uh. If you want to come, you have to carry a weapon. And you have to do _exactly_ what I say, no arguments.”

Slowly, Kristina nodded and took the taser from Sam’s hand. “Alright.” She whispered. “Thank you, Sam,” she added, a bit more forcefully. “I just…I can’t sit back and do nothing, not when just about everybody I love is either in that room or about to try to rescue them.”

Sam sighed again. “Mom is going to _kill_ me.”

Maxie wrapped an arm around her friend. “Don’t worry. Mac’s going to kill me and Robin, and Lucky’s going to kill Lulu for doing something this crazy. At least we’ll be in good company.”

That got a laugh from the whole group, and they packed their weapons and supplies. “Ok, we should get going,” Lulu said, heading for the side entrance.

“Wait!” Robin called after her, causing everyone to turn back around. “There’s one more thing we need to do.”

***

 _“I repeat, exactly when did you inherit your father’s less-brilliant tendencies?”  
_

Robin sighed for the tenth time since she’d made the call and rubbed her temples. The headache didn’t seem to be dissipating, and things were only going to get worse from here. “Mom, you can berate me for being as stupid as Dad later. Can you help us or not?”

She’d set her cell phone on the hood of Mac’s car and put it on speaker so that she could open up Mac’s laptop while her mother addressed the entire group. Unfortunately, calling Anna Devane and telling her that not only was there a dangerous situation that she couldn’t personally deal with _and_ that her civilian daughter was going to take care of things herself had proven…unhelpful.

Not that that kept the other women from barely containing their laughter at Robin’s expense as Anna vacillated between bursting with pride at her daughter’s initiative and bravery, and yelling at her for her utter stupidity for the same.

 _“Of course I can help.”_ Anna’s huffy voice sounded slightly tinny over the connection, but they heard a keyboard clacking in the background, and within seconds the full set of blueprints for the Metro Court popped up on the computer screen.

“I can’t believe your mom can just pull up documents like that,” Sam said, sounding somewhat awed. Robin figured she understood; the woman was used to working with Spinelli, who, although able to do much the same thing, didn’t have quite the same legal authority that a World Security Bureau agent did.

 _“It’s nothing, really,”_ Anna said, having heard Sam’s whispered comment. _“After the last hostage crisis there, the Metro Court’s schematics were entered into our security database for future reference. Actually, we’ve got quite a few places in Port Charles entered in here. Besides, I always say that forewarned is forearmed.”  
_

Robin snorted. “You have never once said that.”

 _“Well, alright, I suppose that I occasionally like to improvise. I remember this one time, I had to sneak into the Russian Embassy in Bogota—“_

“That’s great, Mom.” Robin cut her off and continued looking at the blueprints. “Okay, it looks like there’s a sub-basement access point for deliveries that isn’t on the normal locking system. We should be able to get in there and work our way up the hotel.”

“The shots came from the third or fourth floor, right?” Lulu asked. “The South stairwells should provide us with some cover to check out each floor.”

“And we can get into the lobby through a back entrance in the boutique,” Maxie added.

“What about the vault?” Kristina asked. “I mean, if that’s the entire reason they’re there, they won’t have just left it alone to take hostages. So someone still has to be down there, right?”

The others nodded and Sam leaned in closer to look at something on the screen. “It looks like the vault is down in the Northwest tunnel, so we should be able to take a look at who’s still there by staying in…this tunnel,” she pointed to a marking on the blueprints. “I think our best bet is going to be eliminating crew members as we come across them. It limits the number we’ll have to deal with in the ballroom.”

 _“Might I make a suggestion?”  
_

Sam blinked. “Um, sure.”

 _“While I would normally agree with you on such a course of action, given that this group of thugs have apparently deviated from their original plan, they are most likely in constant communication with one another throughout the hotel. Robin, you said they didn’t take the hostages until after you heard gunfire?”  
_

“Yeah.”

 _“Then they are most likely trying to avoid any more surprises. What did this prosecutor you’re dealing with instead of a trained negotiator do when told about the injured?”  
_

Robin frowned, confused. “What injured?”

 _“Robin, Luv, I’ve trained you better than this, surely. You don’t think that gunfire was just for show, do you?”  
_

Truth be told, none of them had considered the possibility that anyone had been injured by the gunfire. They had taken the exchange between the leader of the group inside and Claire at face value. From the looks they exchanged with each other, it seemed they all realized they should have known better.

 _“Robin? Maxie?”  
_

“We’re still here, Mom,” Robin said. “Just…kicking ourselves for not realizing that we’d likely have injured to deal with.” _And that the robbers aren’t being honest with the police outside._

 _“If you’re lucky, they won’t be injured, merely more hostages. The only reason I bring it up at all is to make sure you are all as prepared as possible. And that means not taking unnecessary risks like removing members of this group who are not immediately threatening harm. There could very likely be nothing to worry about.”  
_

“We don’t have that kind of luck, Anna,” Lulu said. “You know that.”

There was silence on the other end of the line, and Robin checked her watch. Less than fifteen minutes before the next phone call between Claire and the group’s leader. “Mom, we should probably get going if we want to be inside before these guys start insisting their demands be met. Once Claire has to get those things in motion, we won’t even have an hour to stop all this.”

 _“Of course, Luv. Just one more thing, though. Can you all give me your mobile numbers?”_

They did, but Sam frowned. “You won’t be able to contact us, you know. They’ve got jammers set up that seem to be covering the whole hotel.”

 _“Ah, but you see, I’m not going to call you. You’re going to call you. Or rather, you’ll be able to use your phones as something closer to radios now. I’ve dialed in a WSB security patch to each phone that will allow you to communicate as you would with walkie-talkies inside. No worries about having to use mobile signals. After all, that group has to be in communication somehow as well, yes?”_

“Oh, this is so cool!” Lulu grinned. “So we’ve got like, our own mini-Bluetooth network?”

 _“Something like that.”_

Sam shook her head at the phone. “You, Anna Devane, are my hero. How did you even do that?”

 _“Being legal has its advantages.”_

Maxie and Lulu snorted, and even Kristina chuckled softly. Robin rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, Mom. Don’t forget, you’ve had your thing for bad boys in the past, too. No judgments.”

 _“Darling, I would never! Now please, promise me you’ll be careful? I know you’re as well-prepared as can be, but I still can’t stomach the idea of not being there with you for something like this. And I don’t even want to think about what your father’s reaction will be when you tell him about this little foray into adventure.”_

“Mom,” Robin said gently. “Uncle Mac’s inside. Once we get up to the ballroom, you know I’ll have the very best looking out for me. And until then, I’ve got a surprisingly capable team watching my back.” She smiled at the other women. “Thanks for everything.”

 _“I love you, Robin.”_

“I love you too, Mom.” Snapping the phone and laptop shut, Robin stowed them and turned back to the group. “Alright. Let’s get to work.”

***

In the ballroom, everyone had been herded towards the center of the room. Some people remained seated at their tables, while most had taken up spots on the floor. For many of the occupants of the room, it was a stark reminder of another February night four years earlier, when another group of masked gunmen had taken them hostage. In the very same hotel, no less.

The hostages may have been sitting docile, but they were far from happy about it.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Carly muttered to her husband, her chin propped in a hand as she slumped against their table. “Jason should have been back by now.”

“Then it probably means that these guys are worse than we realize from being up here,” Jax, answered. He met her low tone, but his voice held none of her worry. If Jax was very, very lucky, the gunmen had left Jason’s body somewhere in the hotel for the police to find later.

No, that was cruel, and petty, and beneath him. It was the sort of thought Carly’s ex-husband, Sonny, might have had, and Jax was better than that. “Maybe we should move,” he said. “Sell the hotel, and just take the kids someplace with a lower mortality rate.”

Carly closed her eyes and smiled, a dreamy expression crossing her face. “I’ve always heard nice things about Pine Valley. Or maybe Genoa City. I’d love to get back into the makeup industry. And maybe it’d do the kids some good to be in a new place.”

Jax smirked, but was excited for entirely different reasons at the thought of moving somewhere new. “The kids would definitely like either place. And I’ve got a score to settle with Victor Newman.”

Opening her eyes, Carly met her husband’s smirk. “Personal grudge, or professional?”

“Is there any difference?”

Both chuckled softly, and continued to dream of a new life someplace far away from Port Charles.

***

“I can’t believe I’m being held hostage!”

The Quartermaine table uniformly glared at their patriarch as he continued to grumble about the current state of affairs.

“Edward,” Monica sighed, “ _none_ of us like this _._ In fact, I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to.” She was far more subdued than she normally was when fighting with Edward, her mind stuck on the events of four years ago. Dear God, had Alan really been dead for so long already?

“Is it always this insane in Port Charles?” Maya leaned over to Brooke Lynn, whispering quietly, lest she be overheard by either her family or the hostage takers. She wasn’t sure who she was more worried about, and _that_ scared her.

Brooke rolled her eyes and shrugged, slumping back in her seat. “Eh, this is still better than being trapped in the Quartermaine mansion during a storm, with a bunch of teenagers and a serial killer.”

Maya boggled at her cousin. “…What?”

“I can’t believe I’m being held hostage!”

“Daddy,” Tracy said through gritted teeth. “I love you dearly, but please, I’m begging you, _shut up_!”

Monica sighed again and closed her eyes as her family continued to bicker quietly around her. It was going to be a very long night.

***

“You coming up with anything?” Lucky muttered to Dante as he continued scanning the room, looking for some sort of weakness in the hostage takers’ MO that they could exploit.

Dante shook his head. The bachelors had all been pulled from the backstage area at gunpoint and seated on the edge of the stage. They couldn’t even sneak away, not with the guard standing at the backstage opening.

“How the hell are we supposed to overpower them?” Ethan asked. “They’ve got guns and lots of human shields. We’ve got…wait, let me do the math…carry the zero…yeah, nothing.”

“Thank you for stating the obvious, Ethan,” Lucky said. “Do you have anything constructive to add?”

Ethan shrugged, leaning back and wrapping his arms around his knees. “I hate to say it, mate, but I think just sitting here quietly and not getting shot is our best bet.”

“Maybe Jason’s found a way to avoid them,’ Michael spoke up, lifting his head from where they were buried in his arms. “Maybe that’s why they didn’t bring him back here when they took us hostage. He’s still out there, waiting to make his move.”

Dante grimaced at Michael’s unwavering faith in Jason. He wished he could believe as strongly, but his cop instincts were telling him that this hostage taking had been improvised, especially in light of the parts of the conversation he’d managed to overhear between the leader and the negotiator he’d talked to on the phone. Something about the timing screamed that Jason and Johnny’s actions had led to the current situation. And if that was the case, it meant that they were out of the picture. The people in the ballroom were on their own.

At least Lulu wasn’t in the hotel anymore. Dante sent up a small prayer of thanks for that small miracle. He didn’t even want to think about the trouble she could get up to if she ‘d been trapped in this room with them.

Thinking about that, though, was almost enough to make him feel sorry for the bastards holding them hostage.

***

When the bachelors had been pulled from backstage and made to sit with the rest of the hostages, Matt had been able to make his way to Patrick. If nothing else, being near his brother made him think that at least he wasn’t completely alone in all this.

“I guess it’s different, huh?” he asked. “Being on this side, I mean.” Matt had heard stories about the last hostage crisis in Port Charles, about how Patrick had saved Robin’s life and instructed a scared medical student to perform a life-saving surgery with nothing more than kitchen utensils. His brother had been a hero long before the toxic balls that burned GH to the ground.

Patrick swallowed hard, ducking his head. “That was the worst night of my life,” he whispered hoarsely. “It was the first time I’d had to think about what my life would be like without Robin, and it was just…empty.” He looked up and met his brother’s eyes. “I swore when she was safe that I’d never let her go again.”

“But things didn’t exactly go that way.”

“No,” Patrick agreed. “They didn’t. We— _I_ wasted so much time being scared and stubborn and trying to hold onto a past that didn’t mean anything that I nearly lost Robin way before now. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if Georgie hadn’t died…”

Matt shook his head furiously. “Nuh-uh, you can’t think about it like that. If it hadn’t been the funeral, something else would have driven you two back together. You’d still have had Emma, and you’d still have married Robin.”

“So why’d I throw it all away?” Patrick snorted in disgust. “I’m almost five months into therapy, and I’m no closer to understanding what it was about Lisa that made me so eager to relive those days of drinking and sleeping around. I mean, _God_ , how juvenile was that?”

“Well,” Matt said slowly, “do you _want_ to be juvenile? I mean, now that you can honestly look back at how you were with Lisa, and how you were with Robin, is the way you were with Lisa really juvenile? Or is that just what you’re trying to convince yourself of?”

“No. When I think about how Lisa and I acted together, then and now, all I can think is that I’m embarrassed of who I was. Not just for the cheating, but embarrassed for that guy. It was such an empty way to live. There was no permanence, nothing grounding you to reality. It was just…empty.”

Matt smiled softly. “Like how you are without Robin.”

Patrick started, but found it to be the truth he’d been struggling for all these months. He knew what he really wanted, and who he really wanted it with. Life without Robin wasn’t really a life at all. “I don’t know what I’ll do if she goes through with the divorce,” he whispered.

“Eh, don’t lose hope just yet. I’ve got a feeling that there are still some cards in play.”

“What?” Patrick looked up hopefully. “What do you know?”

“Nothing I can talk about,” Matt said. “I’ve been sworn to secrecy by a very scary blonde. All I can tell you is that you’ve got allies in unexpected places.”

For the first time all night, Patrick smiled. If he made it through the night alive, maybe there was something to hold onto after all.

***

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?”

Maxie rolled her eyes at Lulu’s question, the third such time she’d asked in the five minutes they’d been in the hotel. Really, Maxie believed she was showing remarkable restraint – not to mention serious personal growth – by not smacking Lulu’s yappy mouth shut. “ _Seriously_ ,” she hissed, turning around to glare at her friend, “what part of ‘sneaking around the bad guys with guns’ don’t you understand?”                                                                                                                       

“Well, _excuse me_ ,” Lulu huffed, blinking and shoving the flashlight Maxie had shined in her face down. “I’m just a little worried that we’ve been here for a few minutes already and we’re still wandering around in the basement tunnels!”

“Would _both_ of you please be quiet?” Sam asked, sharing a quick glance with Robin. “Lulu, we’re following the path we got from the blueprints in order to go around the vault area entirely and still end up in the boutique. Maxie, Lulu’s right to worry about how long this is taking, since we’ve only got ten minutes left before Claire makes contact with the hostage takers again. Now can we _please_ keep moving?”

Both Maxie and Lulu frowned, but they stopped talking and continued moving down the tunnel. She was quite familiar with the entire layout of the underground area, both from her time as a shop assistant in the hotel boutique, and also from her own time as a hostage locked in the vault. She swallowed against the memory, thankful for the cover of darkness. It wouldn’t do anyone any good to see her getting lost in thought.

“Hey,” Robin murmured, falling into step with her. “It’s okay to still miss him.”

Maxie blinked back her surprise. But then again, she should have figured that if anyone understood missing a dead boyfriend, it would be Robin. “Thanks,” she whispered. “It’s just weird, you know? Being back here, like this?” She hesitated for just a moment, remembering the story she and Cooper had concocted in order to prevent anyone from connecting him with the Metro Court robbers. “I mean, he joined the PCPD because he didn’t want to see something like this happen again, but here we are.”

“And we’ll stop it from getting as bad as last time,” Sam said. “I promise.”

Robin chuckled, edging the flashlight around the corner to make sure the path was clear. “I’ve got to tell you, I’m just glad I’m armed this time.”

“I’m glad _they_ don’t seem as well-organized as last time,” Sam added. She looked over at Kristina, who she had insisted walk in the center of their group. “You doing okay?”

“I’m _fine_ ,” she huffed. “Just like I’ve been the last three times you asked. Don’t get mad at Maxie and Lulu and then do the same thing.” Her tone softened. “I’m as worried about the people upstairs as you are. But I’m gonna help. You don’t have to worry so much about me.”

“Yeah, Sam,” Lulu piped up. “Maybe this’ll even be good for Kristina. You know, help her get her groove back.”

Sam snorted. “If her ‘groove’ ends up involving violent masked criminals with guns, then I guess we’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

“That’s the spirit!” Lulu cheered.

“Ooh!” Maxie waved for them to shut up. “This is the staircase up to the boutique storage area. We’ll be able to get a clear view of the lobby before moving towards the stairwell from there.”

Checking once more to make sure no one was in the area, the group made their way up the stairs. At the top, Lulu jiggled the door handle. “It’s locked.”

Sam started to say something, but with a soft chuckle, Robin stepped forward. “Just give me one sec.” She passed the flashlight over to Lulu and pulled her lock-picking kit from the supply bag Lulu held. With practiced movements, Robin selected the picks she would need for the job and made quick work of the barrier. “Ta-da,” she whispered, carefully opening the door.

Lulu exchanged the lock-pick set for the flashlight again and entered the dark boutique, scanning the area. She waved the rest of them in, Maxie first, followed by Kristina. She entered after Kristina and left the door open for Robin and Sam to take the rear guard.

Robin moved to step through when she felt a hand on her arm. Turning, she could barely make out Sam watching her curiously in the darkness. “That was practically second nature to you.” Sam spoke lowly, making sure they weren’t overheard, even by their compatriots. “What else don’t we know about you?”

Robin shrugged and turned away. She climbed the final step, a hand resting on the doorframe, when she said, “There are a lot of things in my past I really wished I’d never needed to learn, or use. But we’re here now.” She turned back to Sam, face tight. “I know we don’t know each other very well, but I need you to trust me when I say that I can handle whatever we come across.” She stepped through the door, moving silently along the wall along the same path she’d seen the other girls take.

Sam watched her go, and shook her head as she entered the boutique as well, quietly closing the door behind her. She believed Robin; she was almost curious to see just what the doctor could do.

***

The entire ground floor of the hotel was entirely without light, which made the flashlights they were using even more obvious. Once they were all through to the boutique, Maxie waved for Kristina to shut off her light, leaving them with only the smaller one Lulu was holding.

“Okay, if I were a criminal,” Sam muttered, “I’d leave at least one guard near the front entrance to keep watch on the police activity.”

“And we can assume that they might have prepared for this,” Robin added, “but it wasn’t necessarily part of their plan. They can’t have a crew big enough to leave someone working on the vault, someone on the middle floors where the gunfire came from, down here, _and_ still have enough people to take a room that includes a bunch of cops hostage.” She leaned forward slightly, just enough in the path of Lulu’s flashlight to catch everyone’s eyes. “I think we can assume there’s only one person down here.”

Sam nodded. “Sounds reasonable.”

“Right,” Maxie said. “Reasonable. Because everything about tonight is so _reasonable._ ”

Robin reached out to lightly slap her cousin’s arm. “Hey, you don’t get to complain. I wasn’t even supposed to be here.”

The group moved forwards through the boutique, carefully shining the flashlight ahead of them only in short bursts, just enough to keep from walking into any clothing racks or accessory displays.

“Speaking of,” Lulu said, continuing to edge towards the boutique entrance, which would allow them to observe the entire lobby, “why _was_ Maxie so insistent on getting you here? I mean, she was willing to leave before Kate had signed off on the event, and I’m pretty sure that she would sell her own child into slavery if it would make Kate Howard happy.”

“Hey!” Maxie hissed, smacking Lulu’s arm. “I’m not the only one who abandoned my post, you know! I just thought I could trust you in my absence!”

“You ‘abandoned your post,’” Lulu snapped, “because you were trying to force Robin to come to an event you already _knew_ she wasn’t interested in! At least I left because of work-related stuff.”

“Can you guys keep it down? Please?” Sam begged. They were getting far too close to the boutique entrance for her liking if they were going to continue being this loud.

Robin peered curiously at her cousin. “Actually, yeah, Lulu makes a good point. I said from the beginning that I wasn’t interested in coming tonight. I mean, even _Brenda_ understood, and she’s hosting. So what gives?”

“Um…” Maxie hesitated.

Robin’s eyes narrowed. In a flash of insight, she pieced together the absurd amount of time Maxie and Matt Hunter had been spending together over the last week, especially since they weren’t dating anymore. And come to think of it, she’d seen Matt and Patrick engaged in some pretty heated discussions as well, ever since Maxie’d convinced Matt to act as a Bachelor… “Oh my God!”

“Now, Robin,” Maxie tried, no longer bothering to be quiet. “It was really for your own good.”

“Maxie!” Robin hissed. “I can’t believe you would do this!”

“Well, you guys didn’t exactly leave me with any other choice!”

“Um, guys…” Sam tried, exchanging worried glances with Lulu and shoving Kristina behind her.

“Was Patrick in on it, too?” Robin asked, getting louder. “Was he part of your little plan to…what? Have me see him in a tux and magically decide to bid on him at the Bachelor Auction?”

“No!” Maxie insisted. “I mean, Matt could barely convince him to come at all, there was no way he was letting himself be listed as a Bachelor. Something about how he kept saying that he _wasn’t one_.”

“Hey, guys?” Lulu waved her hands frantically between Robin and Maxie. Without realizing it, they had reached the front of the boutique; Lulu really hoped there was no one down here...

“What is the matter with you?” Robin glared at Maxie. “What part of ‘divorce’ don’t you understand?”

“The part where you still love your husband!”

“Hey! Who the hell is there?”

All five women snapped their heads towards the voice at the other end of the lobby, and managed to duck behind the walls for protection just before the first bullets flew in their direction.

***

“So much for the element of surprise!” Lulu hissed at Maxie as Sam leaned around the wall to fire off three rounds at the robber in the lobby.

“Oh, don’t even _think_ about blaming me for this!” Maxie returned, digging through the bag for the laser dazzler. “ _I’m_ not the one who overreacted!”

Robin readied her gun. “You know, Maxie,” she huffed, unlocking the safety, “I actually think, under the circumstances, that I reacted _very_ well.” She nodded at Sam, then quickly edged around the opposite side of the boutique entrance and shot towards the main sitting area where the man had taken cover.

She ducked back behind the wall as another two bullets flew through the boutique’s entryway. “So,” Robin said. “Plan?”

“Yeah,” Maxie said, fiddling with the dazzler. “Lulu distracts the bad guy, I blind him—“

“Wait, I’m the distraction?” Lulu gaped. “Why am I the distraction?”

“Because if you get shot, then Kate will blame _you_ for the mess tonight!”

“Oh, thanks! You know, if you could just quit meddling in other people’s lives for two minutes—“

“ _Guys_!” Sam hissed.

“Just a minute!” Maxie held up her index finger. “I was _trying_ to save my cousin from making the worst mistake of her life and breaking up her family. Not that I’d expect you to understand that, since _your_ favorite cousin gets divorced as an annual tradition!”

“Maxie!” Lulu and Robin shrieked.

“You’re one to talk about breaking up families!” Lulu added.

“You have _no_ idea how much I’ve thought about what I’m doing,” Robin said. “This isn’t your _or_ Matt’s decision!”

“Hey!” Sam snapped. “Shoot now, fight later!” Dropping her voice to a whisper, she said, “Lulu, call out that we want to surrender. Maxie, when he gets close enough, blind him with that damn thing, and then Robin and I will subdue him.” She glared at the other three. “ _Nothing else gets said_ until this is done, got it?”

Robin nodded immediately, lips pursed. Maxie and Lulu followed, though Lulu looked less than thrilled about her role in the plan. Nevertheless, she sucked in a deep breath and called out. “Okay, okay! We don’t have enough ammo to keep this up! We surrender, okay?”

There was silence in the lobby for a moment, and the Robin held her breath, praying this would work. There hadn’t exactly been time to develop a strategy for getting through the hotel. Luckily, a deep chuckled sounded from close by, and the man said, “Well, well. At least you girlies came to your senses quickly. I promise, I won’t be too rough on—AGH!”

Maxie jumped up from her position against the wall and swung the dazzler up, blinding him with a brilliant red laser beam. “Eat crimson, dirtbag.”

The man roared and rubbed at his eyes, stumbling forward. As he struggled to bring his gun up to firing position again, Sam and Robin jumped out from behind the walls of the boutique and charged at him. Sam nearly sent him sprawling with a swift right hook to his throat, and when he stopped advancing away, Robin delivered a roundhouse kick into his solar plexus. Blinded, gagging, and unable to breathe, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Robin dropped to her knees beside him, pressing her fingers to his jugular to check for a pulse. Satisfied that he was alive and would wake up (eventually), she held out a hand towards Lulu. “Restraints.”

Lulu dug through the bag and handed them over. While Robin and Sam secured the robber, Lulu rolled her eyes at Maxie. “’Eat crimson’?”

“Too much?” Maxie asked.

Incredulous, Lulu nodded. “Yeah.”

Maxie shrugged. “I thought it was appropriate.”

***

“What the hell is going on in there?” One of the police officers turned to Claire, worry coloring his face. “We’ve got a lot of people in there, Ma’am.”

Claire nodded. She knew he didn’t just mean the hostages; the PCPD had several of their own trapped in there, and without the knowledge of what was happening that Claire had, she could understand why they would think it might be one of the cops on the inside who had just been through the exchange of gunfire that came from inside the lobby.

“I know you’re worried,” she said, aiming for calm but arriving closer to mild panic. “We’re all worried. But we just have to trust that the people in there know what they’re doing, and hope that whatever is going on in the lobby, they’re not aware of it up in the ballroom. Maybe we’ll actually catch a break tonight.”

The officer nodded, but didn’t look reassured. Truthfully, Claire didn’t blame him. She may have believed that the women who’d gone inside were as well-trained as any cop, but that didn’t mean she thought this insane plan was a good idea. But she was out of options. All she could do now was pray that everyone made it through the night in one piece.

She wasn’t going to hold her breath just yet. She had five minutes before the leader of the hostage takers called again for updates on his demands.

***

“Kristina? Hey, Krissy?”

Sam knelt in front of her younger sister, shaking her shoulders gently as the teen continued to sit on the floor of the boutique, staring at the floor, not blinking.

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Sam muttered. “Robin, can you come check on her? I think she might be going into shock.”

Robin nodded and knelt beside Sam. “Hey, Kristina,” she said gently. “How’re you doing?”

Kristina finally blinked and looked up. “Oh God…” she choked on a whisper. “He was just…shooting. He was shooting at you. He could have shot you!"

“Hey, hey.” Sam pulled Kristina into a hug. “I’m fine. I’m _fine_. And I’m way too good at this to get shot by some random hotel robber.”

“Yeah.” Maxie popped up from behind the check-out counter where she and Lulu were situating the still-unconscious robber. “Plus, look at how we’re dressed. We can’t die until we’d make prettier corpses.”

“Maxie!” Robin hissed, while Lulu just rubbed her eyes. Kristina, however, stared at her for a moment before bursting into giggles.

“Oh, great,” Sam muttered, but she threw quick, grateful smile at Maxie. “Now she’ll be like this for the next half-hour.

“No, n-no…” Kristina forced herself to say. “I’m fine.” She took several deep breaths, pushing the hysteria aside. “Seriously, I’m okay. I think I just needed to…” She shrugged helplessly.

Sam nodded. “I understand. You needed to release the adrenaline somehow, and since you didn’t get to kick ass like we did, you’ve got to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.”

“Yeah, I guess.” She looked up at her sister. “The whole thing is pretty ridiculous, huh?”

“Eh, no more so than last time,” Maxie said. “I mean, the _last_ time the Metro Court was taken hostage, Sam broke in on her own and got a reality show out of it. _That_ was ridiculous.”

“Thanks, Maxie.” Sam rolled her eyes.

“So, how’re you feeling now?” Robin asked, gently taking Kristina’s wrist and checking her pulse. It was finally slowing to a normal pace. She pulled the small penlight off of her lock-pick kit and shined it in Kristina’s eyes. “Pupils are normal. I guess laughter really is the best medicine.”

Kristina chuckled again and pushed against the wall to stand up. She was shaky, but she waved away Sam’s and Robin’s attempts to steady her. “I’ll be fine,” she said again. “Let’s keep moving. We can’t have much time left before the check-in with Claire, right?”

Sam wanted to stay right where they were…actually, she wanted to force Kristina out the front doors and behind the police barricade, but that was far from being an option anymore. The only choice left was to keep moving and hope the rest of them were enough to keep her safe.

The rest of them had to be enough to keep _everyone_ safe.

They slipped out of the boutique and into the empty lobby, and Sam forced herself not to laugh at Lulu and Maxie behind her.

“Pretty corpses? _That’s_ your motivational speech?”

“ _What_?”

***

In the ballroom, the leader of the robbers paced in front of the bar. Across the room from him, standing at his post by the main doors, his second-in-command, the man he’d started this crew with back in Ohio, stared grimly out at the hostages. He kept his hands firmly on his gun, which he kept straight across his chest. The leader nodded to himself; he was a good man, dependable, and knew exactly how to keep a room with this many people under control.

It was the most recent addition to their crew who had him worried. The man standing beside the backstage area ensuring that no one tried to sneak away had only joined them on their last job in Boston. He seemed solid enough, but he was damn green. And given the way this job had already gone south, that had him worried. Maybe he should have left the guy down in the vault, or at one of the guard posts.

Well, too late to worry about that now. He just hoped that federal lawyer hadn’t been playing him and was getting started on his demands. Their original plan was a goner; they were going to need the sense of fear for the hostages’ lives to drive the rest of the night if he and his men were going to make it through in one piece.

He didn’t want to have to hurt any of the people sitting around in their finest, but his only concerns were getting the goods from the vault and getting his men out of here. If that meant shooting hostages, then so be it.

The leader looked at his watch. It was time to call down to the police barricade and see how close they were to getting their demands met.

***

The walkie-talkie crackled to life from inside the satchel, startling the group in the otherwise silent stairwell.

“Crap, that scared me,” Maxie muttered, clutching at her heart. “Turn the volume down, Lulu. This is one of the floors they think the gunshots came from.”

Lulu ignored her, already digging through the satchel to pull out the walkie they’d taken from the guard in the lobby. It would at least give them some advance warning of what the other robbers were doing, and they’d know when the rest of the robbers realized that one of their own wasn’t conscious to report in.

Like Anna had said, forewarned was forearmed.

 _“I’m calling in to the cops. If they know what’s good for them, they’ve got a vehicle on the way for us. Check in every fifteen minutes. Out.”_

“Well,” Sam said. “At least he’s not asking for updates from the guards yet. And he’ll have to spend at least a few minutes on the phone with Claire, which gives us a little more time that he’s not thinking about what’s happening down here.”

Robin nodded. “We don’t have any time to waste. We check this floor, and if it’s where the guard is, we get away and keep moving up to the ballroom.”

“What if they’ve got hostages here, too?”

Four heads turned to Kristina. Although passed her panic attack from before, she hadn’t said a word since they’d entered the stairwell. “What do you mean, Krissy?” Sam asked.

“Well, you said that two people had tried to take out the guard, and that’s what caused the initial gunshots and made the other robbers take the ballroom hostage.” Kristina tilted her head to the side. “What if they didn’t bring those two people upstairs? What if they’re still here?”

“They could be injured,” Robin agreed. “My mom is right, they’d almost have to be hurt if two people couldn’t take out one person, even having the element of surprise.”

“Those odds sucked,” Maxie said. “Now it’s five to one, and we’re armed, too.”

“We have to at least make sure there’s no one stuck here,” Lulu added.

All of them had people in their lives who could have conceivably tried to overpower the guard, and without knowing for certain who was still in the ballroom, the idea that someone they loved could be hurt – and given the way the last hostage crisis had gone, potentially critically – was too much to ignore. In the dim light of the flashlight, they all nodded.

Lulu took the gun out of her waistband and braced it over the hand holding the flashlight, while Maxie leaned up beneath her, ready to open the door. Robin followed Maxie, and Kristina stood between her and Sam.

As quietly as possibly, Maxie released the handle and eased the door open, dropping her arm to allow Lulu to slip into the hallway, gun raised and ready to fire. When no one appeared in the beam of the flashlight, she turned back and nodded for the rest of the group to exit the stairwell. She moved to the other side of the hall, bracing herself at the corner where it intersected with another hallway, using the curve for cover. The rest of the women finished moving through the door to the wall, though Sam and Robin had pushed Maxie and Kristina to the back of the group and prepared themselves to support Lulu if she found something down the other hallway.

Once the rest of the women were against the wall behind Lulu, she switched the flashlight off, plunging the hallway into near-total darkness. The only light that remained filtered in from the windows at the end of the hall behind them.

Turning back, Lulu’s eyes glittered in the dim street lights, and she nodded once. Sucking in a breath, she moved to the very edge of the hallway curve, arms straight and gun readied. She felt Sam and Robin take point behind her, crouching down and remaining at her shoulder to provide as much cover fire as possible should she need it.

Lulu had a sinking feeling she was going to need it.

She gave herself a mental kick. Dante and Lucky could be lying somewhere down there, injured, and she was now the one who could save them. They’d both saved her enough times before that she figured she owed them one. Knowing she couldn’t put it off any longer, Lulu readjusted her hands around the grip of the gun, letting its weight lend her security, and she leaned her head around the wall to look down the other hallway.

There was one man standing by the window, his submachine gun illuminated by the light from outside.

 _Crap_ , she mouthed as soon as she ducked back behind the corner. _One guy_ , she added, holding up a finger to make sure they knew what she was saying.

Sam leaned in to whisper in her ear, “Gun?”

Lulu nodded. “Submachine,” she whispered back, making sure both Sam and Robin could hear her.

Maxie leaned forward to tug on Lulu’s arm. _What is it?_ she mouthed, motioning for Kristina to stay behind her.

“One guy, big gun,” Robin whispered. “Plan?”

“Same as before,” Sam said. “Lulu puts the guy off balance by announcing her presence, and when he turns towards us, Maxie blinds him while you and I,” she tilted her head towards Robin, “take him down and secure him.”

“Yeah, sure,” Lulu said. “It worked before, so why not—“

 _“Hey, Anders? Anders, come in. You’re five minutes overdue to check in.”_

Kristina couldn’t cover her gasp as the walkie-talkie burst to life in the satchel slung over Maxie’s shoulder. From the other end of the hall, a deep voice boomed, “What the hell?”

“Crap!” Maxie squeaked, frantically digging through the bag to switch off the walkie. “Crap, crap, crap!”

“Too late now!” Lulu hissed, swinging around and gratefully stepping back as Sam and Robin seemed to instinctively flank her.

“Hey! Who’s there!”

The robber punctuated his shout with a short burst of gunfire. The girls screamed and ducked down, bracing as tightly against the wall as possible. Sam spun around to face the others. “When Robin and I start shooting, Maxie, I want you to get Kristina back into the stairwell for cover—“

“Sam!” Kristina protested, hugging the taser tightly to her chest.”

“Don’t even think about arguing, Krissy!” Her voice was flat and determined. “You agreed you’d do whatever I said, and this is what I say. The guy is—“

“Whoever you are, just come out now and no one’ll get hurt.” The robber fired down the hallway again, and Robin leaned around the corner to fire off three rounds at him. She aimed for his knees; she was easily a better shot than that, but there was no reason to inflict permanent damage if she didn’t have to.

Sam looked once more at her sister. “Krissy, go,” she begged, before jumping out from the corner to shoot at the robber head-on. He returned fire, and she dived back behind the wall curve just in time to avoid a bullet in her shoulder.

Lulu nodded to Maxie. “While they’re shooting, I’ll cover you two to get to the stairwell. Maxie, get the laser thing ready!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maxie muttered, finally finding both the walkie and the dazzler in the satchel. “Just remember, I need a straight shot for this to work.”

Robin nodded at them. “Okay, go!”

She and Sam rushed out from behind the curve again, aiming straight at the robber. They started shooting as soon as they rounded the corner, but so did he. As Robin and Sam began firing, Lulu rushed behind them, keeping her eyes straight on the robber. She shouted for Maxie and Lulu to cross to the stairwell, and she screamed as a bullet whizzed too close to her head for comfort. She ducked back behind the hallway curve just as she heard the stairwell door slam.

The door opened again and Maxie stuck her head into the opening, watching in horror as the robber moved closer, firing more shots towards them than Robin and Sam could meet. The two women had to back up around the corner as well, and were now taking turns shooting back at the robber.

“Maxie!” Lulu hissed over the gunfire. “Any time now would be great!”

“It’s a _laser_!” she snapped. “If I can’t get a direct, straight line between me and his eyes, it’s useless! So unless you’re volunteering to get him to stare at me…”

“Ugh!” Lulu crouched beside Robin and Sam. “Any ideas?”

Sam quickly leaned around the corner and fired off two more shots, getting the robber to momentarily halt his advance. “We’re going to run out of bullets if this keeps up,” she said. “I’m about to have to load my only replacement magazine.”

“Same,” Robin said. Another several shots echoed above their heads. Plaster and dust rained down on them, and Robin took her turn to return fire, though she was now clearly rationing her bullets. “I don’t like this. We’re going to have to start shooting to actually take him down, not just try to get him to stop.”

“One of you take my gun.” Lulu shoved it towards them. “I got them to the stairwell, and one of you can—“ She screamed as the wall above her head exploded from the sudden gunshot.

“Don’t make me come all the way over there, ladies!” The robber was closer now, and punctuated his statement by spraying the wall with several more bullets. He hadn’t rounded the corner yet, though he clearly had the advantage.

“The bastard is enjoying this,” Sam hissed through gritted teeth. “Screw it.”

“Sam!” Robin cried, but to no avail. Sam rounded the corner again and fired the rest of her bullets as directly at him as she could. He roared in pain as one bullet tore through his thigh.

The robber swore violently. “Bitch, you’re gonna pay for that.” He started firing again, this time aiming directly for the corner where they’d been taking cover. He continued walking straight for them, barely slowed by the bleeding wound in his leg.

In the chaos, no one heard the radio at his waist turn on, and no one heard the voice asking for a check-in from the guard.

“Sam, get back here!” Robin shouted over the echo of the gunshots.

Sam released the empty magazine from her gun as she rushed behind Robin. “Cover me, I need to reload!”

“Better get out my extra one, too,” Robin shouted to her.

Before she could move to take aim again, another round of bullets rained over them. The girls screamed in surprise; this time, the shots were fired from close enough that the force of the blasts were tearing through the walls themselves. Robin dove back farther, just in time to avoid a shower of wood and drywall as the walls surrounding them were destroyed. The robber fired again, shouting “I’m not kidding, girlies!” as he did, more wood and debris falling around them. Sam cried out as a jagged piece of plywood exploded passed her, slicing along her arm and making her drop her gun.

“Sam!” Robin and Lulu screamed as they raced to pull her into the stairwell. The robber was barely ten feet away, and still firing.

Suddenly, he jerked and dropped his gun, seizing in place before collapsing to the floor. His body continued vibrating even after he was on the ground.

“What…?” Robin muttered. She turned around and gasped at what she saw.

Standing in the doorway of the stairwell, taser out and still firing, was Kristina.

“Krissy,” Sam groaned, clutching her wounded arm. “Krissy, honey, you’ve got to release it now.”

“I…I…” Kristina’s wide eyes were fixed on the robber’s fallen body. She remained stuck in place, hands wrapped so tight around the taser that they were turning white. Maxie stood up on shaky legs and wrapped her own hands around Kristina’s, gently prying the gun away. Once Kristina’s fingers were loose, the taser stopped firing and the robber stopped jerking.

He started to push himself up, arms shaking from the aftershocks and the electrodes still attached to his chest. “You bi—“ His body spasmed again and he dropped. The group looked at Maxie, who had activated the taser again.

“Someone go make sure he won’t get up again,” she said. “Or I’ll just have to keep firing. Not that I’d mind too much at this point.”

“Maxie,” Robin said gently. She hurried over to the robber, still convulsing on the floor, and nodded for Maxie to release the trigger. The shaking stopped, and Robin listened to the robber’s ragged, shallow breathing. He was still conscious, most likely trying to deal with the pain of the electric shocks. She rolled him over and firmly pressed her hand against his throat over his carotid sinus, just long enough to knock him unconscious.

She allowed herself a deep breath to calm her racing heart, and got to work.

“Maxie, keep an eye on Kristina. Lulu, check Sam’s arm to see how bad the wound is.” Robin unclipped the gun from the robber’s vest and shoved it back towards the group, before quickly undoing his belt and tying it around his leg to stem the loss of blood from his gunshot.

“I’m fine,” Sam said, pushing Lulu away and hurrying to her sister’s side. She pulled Kristina into a tight hug. “Oh my God, you brave, stupid girl. What the hell were you thinking?!”

Kristina leaned back just enough to look at Sam, and promptly burst into tears.

***

“Damn it!”

The robber standing guard by the ballroom doors heard his crew’s leader muttered curse as he paced beside him.

“What is it?” the guard whispered. They were too close to the hostages for his liking, and he didn’t want to risk being overheard, especially if something had gone wrong.

Well, more wrong.

“I can’t get through to Anders,” the leader said. “And now Bates isn’t answering, either.”

“Shit.” Anders and Bates were long-time associates of both of theirs, and they’d been working together since even before forming this current crew. Both were dependable, especially when the pressure was on like this. For both of them not to answer… “They were guarding the lower levels of the hotel.”

The leader nodded once. “Yeah.” He turned, and even though the ski mask obscured most of his face, the robber knew his crew leader was rapidly moving beyond pissed at how everything was shaking out. “Someone’s changing the rules on us.”

“You got a plan, boss?”

The leader’s grim smirk wasn’t hidden by the mask. “Yeah. They’ve left us no choice: now we change the rules on them. Keep an eye on the room. I’ve got to make a call to that nice little federal prosecutor downstairs.”

***

“How come we’re stuck doing the heavy lifting?” Maxie grumbled. She and Lulu were attempting to drag the unconscious robber back towards the other end of the hall. If he had hostages on this floor, they’d have been where he could keep an eye on them. “I swear, dragging big, heavy guys around hotels is so not good for my manicure.”

“Maxie,” Lulu hissed, heaving the body along, “don’t you think we have…” _Heave_. “…bigger problems than your fashion issues?”

“I’m just _saying_ , this is the second guy we’ve had to dispose of tonight. How come we, the two people whose looks _actually_ matter, have to get all sweaty and strained, and risk chipping our polish?”

Lulu stopped pulling and stared at her friend. “Your brain must be a _fascinating_ place.”

“Thanks!”

Deciding that silence, in this case, was the better part of valor, Lulu ignored that. “And besides. Sam’s injured, Kristina’s in shock, and Robin’s trying to take care of Kristina’s shock.”

“I can’t believe she tasered the guy, just like that.” Maxie looked up at Lulu as they reached the end of the hallway. “She may have insisted on coming with us, but she’s not like us, is she?”

Lulu pursed her lips, dropping the robber’s arm and standing up to stretch. “She got to grow up normally. Well, as normally as the daughter of a mobster and a Cassadine can, anyway.”

“You know what I mean,” Maxie chided. “Robin and I grew up around cops and private investigators; we knew the kinds of people who were out there, and our family made sure we could protect ourselves. Same thing with you. I mean, you might not have grown up on the run like Lucky, but you’re a Spencer, through and through, and between your dad and your brothers, they made sure you knew how to handle yourself.” She paused as something seemed to occur to her. “Does it even seem weird to you that we’re all trained to handle firearms, that Robin can recognize non-lethal crowd control equipment on sight, and that none of us really thought twice about breaking into a building that was taken hostage?”

“We are who we are. “ Lulu shrugged. “You said it yourself. We were raised to be able to do this if the time ever came. Well, the time came.” She chuckled quietly, remembering how much more comfortable she had been than Dante was, impersonating cops and being on the run in rural Ireland. He had accused her then of liking the Spencer reputation a little too much, and she hadn’t even had a gun that time; she really wasn’t looking forward to the lecture he was going to give her after tonight.

But they’d both be alive to have that fight, and that made it worth it.

“Hey, check it out.” Maxie’s voice broke through Lulu’s reverie. “There’s like, a reading room or something here.”

Leaving the restrained robber outside the doors, Lulu clicked on the flashlight and followed Maxie into the alcove at the end of the hallway. She shined the light around the room, ready for whatever jumped out at them.

“Hey,” Maxie said, moving towards the back corner. “What’s this?”

Lulu moved the light towards where Maxie was pointing, and they both gasped at what they saw. “Guys!” Lulu called towards the hallway. “Hey, guys! Get down here, now!”

***

“You lied to me, Ms. Walsh,” the leader hissed into the phone. “You said there were no cops in the building.”

 _“There aren’t. I promised you, I’d do everything I had to in order to keep the hostages safe and get us all what we want.”_

He shook his head; she couldn’t see it, but he knew the hostages could, and he knew they were hanging onto every angry word he said and angry gesture he made. That level of fear was what would allow him to take back the control of the situation.

“Now, see, I just can’t believe you. Two of my men have fallen out of radio contact, and that’s just not like them. And they’re both on floors below us, which makes me think that they’re being silences as someone – or a group of someones – heads upstairs.”

 _“I can absolutely promise you, there are_ no _law enforcement officials from_ any _agency are trying to get through the building—“  
_

“Then who the hell is here?” the leader growled.

 _“Please listen to me, we can still resolve this in a—“  
_

“Sorry, Ms. Walsh, but you’re out of time. You’ve got fifteen minutes to get a vehicle ready for me and my men, or I start shooting hostages.”

***

“Oh God, are they still alive?” Maxie asked as she and Lulu knelt beside the bodies of Jason and Johnny.

“I think?” Lulu said, pressing along Johnny’s throat the way she’d seen Robin do to the robbers and Kristina before. “I feel movement, so I guess they’re still alive, thank God.”

Robin rushed into the room ahead of Sam and Kristina; Sam refused to leave her sister’s side to allow Robin to look at her injured arm, and Kristina moved in a daze. “Oh, God.” Robin hurried over to the corner of the room and slipped efficiently into doctor mode. She felt for pulses in both men and must have been satisfied by what she found, because she exhaled loudly and relaxed.

“Are they okay?” Maxie asked, looking worriedly from Johnny to Jason.

Robin nodded. “Just unconscious, but their pulses are strong and steady. But we need to try and wake them up so I can check for other injuries and neurological damage.”

The other women appeared in the doorway, silhouetted by the outside lights. “Hey,” Sam said, leaning heavily against the doorframe. “Who is it?”

“Jason,” Robin answered. “And Johnny. They’re fine,” she hurried to add when Sam gasped and seemed to slump further against the frame. “Just unconscious.”

Sam was torn between keeping Kristina out of the room and rushing to Jason’s side, but Kristina seemed to make that decision for her. She felt her sister’s body stiffen beside her, and heard the sharp intake of breath. “Oh no,” Kristina whimpered. “Johnny!” She broke free from Sam’s grip and stumbled over to the group on the floor.

Sam should have figured; no matter what happened between Sonny and Johnny, Kristina’s soft spot for Johnny and Ethan had remained, as had the men’s for Kristina. The whole night had just become even more personal for Kristina. She headed towards the group as well, now using her free arm to brace her injured one.

“We need to wake them up,” Robin was saying when Sam got to them. “If it’s really just unconsciousness, a sharp slap to the face should be enough to work.”

“Ooh!” Maxie’s hand shot up. “Dibs on slapping Jason!”

“Maxie!” Sam shouted.

“ _What_? He was never very nice to me, even when I was practically living with him and Spinelli.”

Robin rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Let’s at least pretend we don’t enjoy senseless violence, okay?”

“I can’t hurt Johnny,” Kristina whimpered softly.

Grimly, Lulu replied, “I’ll do it.”

“I’ll wake Jason up,” Sam added, though Robin emphatically shook her head.

“Uh-uh,” she said. “ _You_ are going to let me look at that arm.”

“It’s fine,” Sam insisted.

“It’s bleeding.”

Johnny’s groan made them turn around. His head was lifting up, and in the flashlight Lulu had set aside when they’d gone to check on the men, Robin could see his eyes opening. She could also now see a trail of blood leading down the side of his face.

“Wha’ happ’ned?” he slurred, blinking slowly. He seemed to register the worried faces looking at him. “Hey, guys. When’d you ge’ h’r?”

Kristina turned to Robin. “Why’s he talking like that? What’s wrong?”

Robin dropped in front of Johnny and picked up the flashlight, shining it into his eyes before moving to examine the injury more closely.

“Ow,” Johnny groaned at the light press of Robin’s fingers along his hairline. “Whacha doin’, Doc?”

“I’m checking to see how bad your bleeding head wound is,” she responded with a small smile. “Luckily, head wounds always look worse than they are, your pupils are normal, and you seem to be in possession of your faculties.”

Johnny’s face slipped into a loopy half-grin. “Yay, me.”

Maxie sniffled. “Yes, yay you. You idiot!” She glared at him. “What were you thinking, taking on an armed robber without any backup or weapon?”

Leaving Johnny to Maxie, Lulu, and Kristina, Robin shifted over to Sam and Jason. “Has he woken up yet?”

Sam shook her head; as Robin swung the flashlight up to examine Jason for a similar head wound as Johnny’s, she saw tears shining in the other woman’s eyes. Robin remembered all too well what it was like to worry about Jason getting injured by one of the bad guys.

It was always easier to forget that Jason was also one of the bad guys in those situations.

“He hasn’t woken up at all?” Robin asked, frowning. “Even opened his eyes?”

“No,” Sam replied.

“He got hit pretty bad,” Johnny slurred. “Robber guy butted him in the back of the head with his gun.”

Robin cursed under her breath and reached around to feel Jason’s skull. Sure enough, she felt the caked blood on the back of his head almost immediately. That changed things significantly; the wound may have stopped bleeding on the surface, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still bleeding inside is skull, especially since he wasn’t waking up as easily as Johnny had.

“Robin, what is it?” Sam asked.

Before Robin could answer, the radio on the robber out in the hallway crackled to life.

***

As soon as they leader spoke, the ballroom erupted.

Mac, Lucky, and Dante were the first on their feet, arguing to the robbers that doing this would end any chance the robbers had at getting what they wanted from the police. So far, the robbers had seemed to listen to Mac’s advice when it came to dealing with Claire and the police outside, and they all hoped it would continue to be that way.

The rest of the room, however, now seemed to take matters into their own hands.

“You can’t seriously think you can do something like this!” Edward shouted, standing up and banging his fist against the table.

“Sit _down_ , Edward!” Monica hissed. “Do you want to make things worse?”

“I won’t wait here to be shot, Monica!”

Jax and Carly had bolted up as well, bargaining with the robbers. “If it’s just money you want,” Jax tried, “just give me an amount and you’ll get it.

“So you can have the police trace what you give us?” the leader of the crew said. “No thanks.”

“We just want to get out of here!” Carly screamed at them “So just take the damn money and let us go!”

“Sit down, lady!” One of the guards moved closer to the crowd, gun pointed out. “And shut up!”

“Don’t talk to me that way!”

Jax pulled on his wife’s arm. “Carly!”

“Can we all just try to stay calm?” Steven asked, standing and moving towards the center of the group.

“Hey, no moving!” the same guard shouted, pointing the gun towards Steven.

Patrick jumped up from the GH table. “Look, no one wants any problems—“

“No moving!”

Matt stood as well, walking towards his brother. “Hey, hey, we’re all on the same—“

“I said no moving!”

The gunshot silenced the room.

***

The crackle of the radio brought the group in the reading alcove to stillness. If this was a check-in, then the robbers holding everybody hostage upstairs were about to get confirmation that their plan was officially off the rails.

 _“Whoever the hell has this radio, I already know you’re not my guy.”  
_

Sam swore under her breath, and Lulu jumped up to retrieve the walkie and bring it back to the group. The voice was back again as she returned.

 _“I don’t know who you are, and I don’t really care. I know you’ve taken out two of my men, and I know that the prosecutor lady outside hasn’t kept her end of the bargain.”  
_

“How did they know about this guy?” Maxie asked, pointing to the robber lying out in the hallway. “This only just happened.”

Robin sighed, thinking it over. “Either they could hear the shots up in the ballroom, which is unlikely given how many floors are between us and them, or he must have missed a contact when we were fighting.”

Sam sagged against the wall. “And none of us would have heard it either over the gunshots.”

 _“Listen to me, and listen good. My men and I are getting our payday, and we’re getting the hell out of here. So I’ll tell you what I’ve told the cops outside: if we don’t have a vehicle waiting to take us to the docks without police interference in fifteen minutes, we’re going to start shooting hostages.”  
_

“Damn it!” Robin hissed. “I _knew_ we could make things worse!”

“It would have gotten to this anyway, Robin,” Sam argued. “I mean, let’s face it. People who take hostages aren’t exactly known for their non-violent ways.”

“This is directly because of us! Because the guards around the hotel didn’t check in on time, so now these guys know that their plan won’t work anymore!”

Maxie held up a hand. “What if something else is going on? I mean, we don’t know what’s happening up in the ballroom, so this could just be their way of trying to keep control up there.”

Sam shook her head. “Look, we still have time to get up there and finish this without anyone getting hurt. I say we use whatever time we have left.”

The radio went on again, silencing everyone.

 _“Oh, and in case you think I’m bluffing, or you still have time to stop me, you should know that one hostage has already been shot. Unlike you, I keep my word.”_

***

“Matt!” Patrick screamed as his brother fell to the floor.

The leader of the robbers shot his gun into the air. “Nobody move!” He looked at the crew member who had fired into the crowd; it was the new guy, the one who had just joined them on the last job. He should have known better than to trust he could keep his cool when this job went south.

“He’s bleeding!” Patrick spun around and looked at the leader. “I’m a doctor, you have to let me help him.”

“I don’t _have_ to do anything,” the leader replied, but he didn’t like that a hostage had been shot ahead of schedule. It was just one more thing that was going wrong tonight.

Mac held up his hands and slowly stood up. “Listen to me, you’re going to want all the bargaining power you can get with the police outside. And the best thing you can do for yourselves is for us to be able to say that when someone was _accidentally_ shot,” he threw a look at Patrick to silence his protest, “you let doctors start helping him immediately.”

He hated it, but the leader knew Mac was right. And as Police Commissioner, his word would carry a lot of weight with the local authorities, especially when it came time for him and his crew to get the hell out of town. He tilted his head, indicating his guys to step back and return to their guard positions. “Alright,” he said. “Let your doctors do what they can. But no one’s leaving until my men and I do.”

Patrick and Steven rushed across the room to where Matt had fallen. They had virtually no supplies, and he was bleeding pretty heavily from his shoulder, but Matt was still alive, and that was what they held onto.

Patrick would just have to keep reminding himself that at least he was here this time. He wasn’t going to lose any more of his family.

***

“I’m going!”

“The hell you are, Kristina!” Sam wasn’t even going to pretend to have this argument now, not after what had just been announced over the radio. They didn’t know who was hurt upstairs, or how bad, but everything in the last fifteen minutes proved one overwhelming fact to Sam:

These guys meant business. Kristina wasn’t going anywhere near them.

“But I can help!” Kristina kept arguing. “I took down this guy!”

“Yeah,” Sam acknowledged. “And you also went into shock when you did it!”

“Sam!”

“You’re not going, and that’s final.” Sam marched over to her sister, side-stepping Robin and Lulu who were on the floor going through what remained of their supplies, while Maxie kept Johnny awake. “You agreed to two terms when I let you come: that you would be armed, and that you would do everything I said. Ah!” She held up a hand to stave off Kristina’s protest. “You agreed, fair and square. So now I’m telling you that you are _staying here_.”

“Hey, c’mon Kristina,” Johnny said, still slurring his words around the edges. “Someone’s gotta stay and protect me.” He flashed her a grin that was probably supposed to be charming but looked more stoned than anything else. Sam shot him a grateful look, though Kristina just glared.

Lulu looked up from the floor. “I hate to say it Kristina, but Sam’s right. This just hit a whole new level of dangerous, and no offense, but you haven’t exactly been handling everything as well as the rest of us.”

Robin stood and leaned over to Sam. “Can I talk to you for a second?” she whispered.

“Sure.” Confused, Sam followed Robin back to the room’s entrance, out of earshot of everyone else. Robin seemed to be deciding how to say whatever it was she wanted to say, before finally meeting Sam’s eyes.

“You’re injured,” Robin said. “I think you should stay here with Kristina and the guys.”

“I don’t think so!” Where the hell did Robin get off telling her something like that? Sam was in way too deep to bow out now. And besides, she’d worked through worse injuries than a bullet graze.

Robin wasn’t moved. “You won’t even let me look at it, which makes me think that it’s worse than you’re letting on.”

“Oh, what, do you have some sort of doctory sixth sense?”

“No.” Robin’s hand shot out and poked at Sam’s injury before she could stop her. Sam bit back a groan, but couldn’t stop herself from stumbling back a few steps. “You see?” Robin said as Sam grimaced. “And I barely put any pressure on that. What are you going to do if you have to actually _use_ that arm? Like, say, to tackle one of the hostage takers?”

“Then I’ll take him down and deal with the pain later.” But Sam’s arm was throbbing more, and even though she couldn’t see it, she knew she was still bleeding. Robin was right; she’d barely touched her and could still hurt her badly. What would happen if someone wasn’t pulling their punches?

When Sam looked back at Robin again, she saw an empathy she wasn’t sure she understood on her face. “Believe me, I _hate_ being the one left behind, too. But we wouldn’t have gotten this far without you. Hell,” she chuckled ruefully, “we wouldn’t have come at all if it hadn’t been for you. So let Maxie, Lulu, and I finish what you started, while you make sure that Kristina, Johnny, and Jason are safe.” Her voice faltered just slightly, but Sam heard it.

“What were you going to say about Jason?” Sam asked. “Before, back when the radio came on?”

Robin sighed. “The fact that he hasn’t woken up yet is worrying me. And he took a hard blow to the back of the head.”

“Is he still bleeding or something?” Sam gulped.

“Not on the outside.”

The implications didn’t need to be spelled out for Sam; this was the same problem that had ultimately introduced her and Robin five years ago. Except the last time Jason had been bleeding in his brain, he had nearly died… “Oh, God.”

Robin nodded. “I don’t want to scare you. I can’t say anything for certain without taking him to the hospital, but I don’t like what I know right now.  Someone needs to stay with him who knows what to look for…”

“…Because I know everything that happened last time he had a brain injury,” Sam finished. She clutched her wounded arm tightly against her side. “I just feel like I need to be with you guys, too.”

“Don’t worry about us.” Robin smiled gently, but even in the dim light Sam could see how tight it was. “Either way, this will all be over in fifteen minutes.”

There was nothing Sam could say to that. Robin was right, even in what she wasn’t saying – Sam’s injury would slow them down, and they needed every last advantage they could get if they were going to save everybody.

Robin headed back to the group to help Lulu and Maxie finish packing up. Sam staying in the doorway, watching them. She would have to trust that the three of them would be enough to finish what they’d all started together.

***

“I’m not sure this is the best idea we’ve ever had,” Maxie said as they stood in front of the service elevator on the twentieth floor, the floor below the ballroom. She really, _really_ wasn’t sure about this plan.

Lulu looked over at her. “Is it really any worse than getting Johnny to take the blame for Logan’s murder so I wouldn’t have another psychotic break?”

“Well…”

“Worse than trying to prove Kate was selling her own magazine’s secrets and wound up getting poor Spinelli bikini-waxed?”

Maxie couldn’t help giggling, even though she felt bad about it. “Well.”

“And is it really any worse than that time we went to Paris for Fashion Week and accidentally wandered into that—“

“You’ve made your point!”

Robin eyed the two of them. “I don’t remember you telling me any exciting stories about Paris Fashion Week, Maxie.”

Maxie swallowed delicately. “That’s because there’s _nothing to tell_ ,” she hissed pointedly at Lulu. “You agreed we’d never mention it again!”

Lulu shrugged. “I’m just saying, climbing up the service elevator shaft isn’t the craziest thing we’ve ever done. Now,” she said, eyeing the doors. “What’s say we pry these babies open and get to shimmying?”

***

Kristina sat against the wall with her knees pulled tightly to her chest, eyes closed. She hadn’t spoken to Sam since the other women had left to complete the rescue attempt. Granted, it had only been two minutes, but Kristina was making sure that the silence felt like a _long_ two minutes. That was her prerogative as younger sister; Molly had perfected the technique on both of them when she was younger.

Kristina had always been an excellent student.

“Y’know, Kristina,” Johnny broke through the silence, rolling his head to look at her. “I think I’m still a li’l loopy, ‘cause I coulda sworn I heard you say you tasered a guy.”

Sam snorted. “You _are_ still loopy, but you didn’t hear wrong.”

Johnny blinked. “You…wow.”

Kristina shrugged. “It needed to be done. I just wasn’t expecting the guy to…shake like that.”

“Made you talk,” Sam said quietly, echoing the numerous times these battles had ended the same way since she’d become part of the family. “I know you weren’t expecting it, but you still caused less damage than a bullet would have.”

“Than a bullet _did_ ,” Kristina corrected with an eye roll. She hated when her older sister won. “You shot him in the leg, remember?”

Johnny blinked again. “You shot him? This guy?” He waved vaguely towards the body slumped against the overstuffed chair in the middle of the room. “You didn’t like, leave him bleeding, did you?”

“ _No_ ,” Kristina huffed. “Robin tied off the wound. She’s really good in a crisis.”

“You have no idea how glad I am to hear that.” Johnny leaned his head back and closed his eyes, the winter of two years ago flashing through his mind. It was very good to know that Robin’s actions then had truly been because she was sick. It made him feel much better knowing that she’d been guarding the backs of three women he cared quite a bit about. Although from the sound of things… “So what you’re basically saying,” he said to Kristina, a teasing glint in his eye, “is that you saved the day.”

That made Kristina jolt up. “What?”

Sam gave him a stink-eye. “Yeah, _what_?”

“Well,” Johnny explained, completely ignoring the threat in Sam’s voice. “It’s like you guys were saying before everyone left. Things were going terribly out there, and Kristina was the one who ended up taking the guy down. Not even Jason and I could do that.” His smirk softened into a real smile for Kristina. “It’s a good thing that you hated what you did. You’re not the kind of person who can hurt others, even someone threatening you, and not feel something. I’m actually kind of glad that you _can_ protect people, but aren’t really cut out for it. I’d much rather you didn’t go rushing into danger like most of the people in your life.”

Kristina wasn’t looking at him anymore. “I can protect people,” she murmured. Unseen by the others, she shifted the taser at her side that she’d kept hold of while Robin and Lulu were going over the remaining supplies. “I _can_ protect people.”

“Krissy…?” Sam started, not trusting the expression on her face at all. “What are you thinking?”

Finally, Kristina looked back at her sister. “I can’t do nothing. I’m sorry.” And before Sam could respond, she bolted up and ran out of the room.

“Damn it!” Sam jumped up as well, but she could really feel the pain in her arm now, and knew it would slow her down. She glared at Johnny. “You just _had_ to do that, didn’t you?” she snapped, before hurrying to catch up with Kristina.

Johnny stared, dumbfounded, at the doorway. “What’d I do?” His eyes went back to the robber, tied up and unconscious in the middle of the room. “And what am I supposed to do with him?” He glanced at Jason. “Or him?... Hello?”

***

“ _Seriously_ ,” Maxie grunted as she pulled herself to the top of the elevator shaft, “why couldn’t we just _use_ the elevator? I mean, power is still on at the top floor, right?”

“Because it would make a lot of noise, Maxie,” Lulu answered. She carefully sat on the inner edge of the shaft locks and worked with Robin to pry the doors open. “You know, the stuff we’re trying to avoid by say, _not talking_ once we’re in the ballroom?”

The emergency lighting had been on in the elevator shaft when they’d pried the lower doors open, so at least they’d been able to see where they were climbing. It also meant that Lulu could see Maxie roll her eyes. “Yeah, because _prying open the metal elevator doors_ won’t make any noise at all.”

“It won’t,” Robin muttered, working a small metal file along the bottom of the elevator, “if we can release the doors just above the locking clamp on the base. Then,” she smiled as a small _click_ could be heard, “we can slide them open without dragging.” She and Lulu slid the doors aside just enough to show they didn’t make noise. “Get ready in case it’s guarded.”

Maxie braced herself on the metal support frame and pointed the submachine gun they’d lifted from the robber towards the middle of the doors. Slowly – and, Maxie conceded, almost silently – Robin and Lulu separated the elevator doors, revealing the backstage area of the ballroom.

It was completely empty, and all three sighed in relief. They’d had far too many gunfights that night already.

They climbed out of the elevator shaft and stepped onto the floor. Maxie handed off the submachine gun to Robin and took one of the handguns from Lulu. All armed, they carefully advanced through the backstage area. It was littered with boxes and equipment, all evidence that the set-up for the evening’s event had never been completed. Maxie shook her head at the mess; it might have meant that they had placed to take cover or hide and spy on the ballroom, but it also meant that things had been _seriously_ lacking in the management department. She was never trusting Lulu with anything important again.

Crouching down at the edge of the backstage area, Robin pulled back just enough on the heavy drapes that would have formed the backdrop to the catwalk so they could look into the main room. Four robbers in ski masks with submachine guns stood around the room guarding the hostages, most of whom were seated on the floor; only a few tables were in use, most likely by those attendees who had already been sitting there. From their vantage point, Robin could see the Quartermaines, the GH staff, and Jax still at their tables; finding the people on the floor was nearly impossible with the floor-length tablecloths and chairs blocking her view.

And somewhere in that crowd, someone lay dying.

They retreated back far enough to talk without being overheard by the robber standing guard about ten feet from the backstage entrance.

“We have to do something fast,” Lulu said.

“I know,” Robin agreed. “But we also can’t risk the hostages, especially one with a gunshot wound.”

Maxie crawled back to look out into the ballroom. She looked at the guard nearest to them, and then she turned back to her friends. “I think I have an idea.”

***

Sam caught up to Kristina on the landing of the eighth floor stairwell. The throbbing in her arm had turned into a numb heat spreading through her shoulder, and she felt weaker than she normally would have after running up several flights of stairs, but she was still faster than her teenage sister.

“You have got some _serious_ explaining to do!”

“There’s a dumbwaiter that runs up the end of this hallway,” Kristina said, no apology in her voice. “It goes right into the kitchen; I remember seeing it when Michael and I were hiding there during Claudia’s birthday party.”

“Krissy…”

Kristina shook her head. “Don’t. I can’t think about that. I can’t think about dad, I can’t think about what he did to Claudia that night, I can’t think about everything that’s happened in the last year.” She glared up at Sam, a hardened resolve on her face that Sam had seen far too often on their mother, and on herself. “But I _can_ think about helping those people up in the ballroom. I _can_ think about backing up Maxie, Lulu, and Robin. I _can_ think about the fact that as scared as I’ve been tonight, I’ve made a difference. Please don’t try to stop me, Sam.”

Sam was so used to dealing with the frightened, stubborn girl Kristina had become since the nightmare of Claudia’s birthday party that she had almost forgotten what the real Kristina was like – the Kristina who cared about her family and friends, and who didn’t care about risking herself if it meant protecting them.

As crazy as the situation was, it was nice to have the old Kristina back, and maybe even a little better than before.

“Alright.” Sam pointed up the stairs. “We’ll climb to the floor below the ballroom, and go with your idea of using the dumbwaiter. There’s no way I could climb up an elevator shaft now anyway.”

Kristina glanced at her injured arm. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

“Hey,” Sam chided, shaking a finger at Kristina. “We’re in this together, all the way to the end.”

In the dim dispersed light of the flashlight, Sam still saw Kristina smile widely. “Together.”

***

“Maxie!” Robin hissed frantically. “What are you doing?”

“It works in the movies!” she sniped back. “Now shut up and get ready.”

Robin and Lulu gaped at her from their places behind a box of lighting equipment. “You are certifiably insane,” Lulu marveled. “And I should know.”

“Maxie!” Robin repeated.

But Maxie just waved her off and inched as close to the end of the backstage curtain as possible without being seen. She kept her eyes on the guard nearest to them; he was pacing back and forth as if he was nervous, and Maxie was certain she could use that edginess to her advantage. She just needed him to come back this way…a little closer…and…

“ _Psst_!”

Robin buried her face in her hands. “Oh my God,” she muttered.

Lulu pulled her hands away. “You’d better get ready to move, because one way or another, I’m pretty sure that Maxie’s about to bring us some company back here.”

“Oh my God…”

Maxie ignored them. Her focus was only on the robber, who seemed to have heard her first whisper, but wasn’t paying it enough mind to investigate. She leaned forward again, still just out of his line of sight. “ _Psst_!”

This time, the robber came over to investigate. Scooting further back, Maxie again whispered, “ _Psst_!”

There was silence, and then they heard the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps heading towards the entryway to the backstage area. Maxie turned around and waved Robin forward. “Get ready!”

Robin sighed, but nonetheless crouched behind a box, preparing to spring up and attack as soon as the robber was within her reach. He appeared around the curtain, gun lowered but movements cautious, and moved fully into the backstage. He was now completely out of sight of anyone in the ballroom, and Robin waited until he took a few more steps…

She jumped up, and before he could react, she shot out a hand and hit his jugular, paralyzing his vocal chords and preventing him from calling out for help. She quickly followed that with a hard punch to his solar plexus; with the wind knocked out of him, he swiftly dropped to the floor, unconscious.

Maxie and Lulu joined Robin and stood to stare at the fallen hostage taker. “Wow,” Maxie said, eyes wide. “I can’t believe that worked.”

***

It had taken some maneuvering, but Sam and Kristina finally pried open the dumbwaiter doors and fell out into the kitchen. It was empty; clearly, the robbers had wanted to keep all the hostages in one place so they would be easier to control.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Sam muttered, “but thank God these guys actually seem smart. We’d never last with just our one little taser against a gun.”

Kristina swallowed hard and forced herself to move through the kitchen. The last time she had been here, her world had been ripped apart. She wouldn’t let herself think about that now; there was far too much at stake for her to succumb to panic and memory. “The kitchen doors open into a little entry area before getting to the ballroom proper,” she said instead. “We can open them enough to listen without anyone knowing we’re here.” She knew it would work; she’d done it before.

“Krissy…”

“I know, I know,” Kristina sighed. “I’m going to have a lot to talk about in therapy on Monday, that’s for sure.”

Sam chucked. “Well, at least you can’t ever complain that your life is boring.” She raised a finger her lips when they reached the swinging double doors. Sam pushed open one of the doors just enough so they could hear what was going on in the ballroom.

“Hey, that’s Mom!” Kristina whispered excitedly. “I can hear her trying to talk down the robbers! She’s okay!” She hadn’t wanted to say it, but Kristina had been terrified that Alexis was the hostage who’d been shot.

“I can hear Mac, too,” Sam added. “it sounds like they’re trying to get…okay, they must be talking to this crew’s leader, because they’re telling him that whatever they think is going on outside, letting the doctors help the guy who was shot will go a long way towards helping them.” She closed the door and moved Kristina back a bit so they could talk. “So, we know it’s a guy who was shot.”

“It could be anybody.” Kristina frowned. “I can see the Quartermaines and Carly and Jax, so we know it wasn’t them. But I can’t see anybody else on the floor.” There were still too many people she cared about who could be injured. One man she considered a friend already was.

Sam shook her head slightly. “I hate to say it, Krissy, but we can’t worry about who’s been hurt right now. Whoever it is isn’t going to get the help they need unless we can take down all the robbers at once. How many of them did you see?”

Kristina thought for a moment. “Three: the leader guy that Mom and Mac were talking to, one guarding the ballroom entrance, and one on the opposite wall from us.”

“Good, I counted the same.” Sam would never say it, but she was intensely proud of Kristina; she was proving to have a cool head under pressure after all. “But who I _didn’t_ see were Maxie, Robin, and Lulu.”

“Well,” Kristina said, “since they weren’t talking about new hostages or people sneaking inside, we can assume that they’re still safe, and hiding backstage, right?”

Sam nodded. “Right. And that means we can coordinate an attack on two fronts.” She smiled. “We may actually stop these guys.”

Kristina met Sam’s smile, but before she could respond, the phone attached to Sam’s hip vibrated. She picked it up and looked at the caller ID: _Maxie Jones_.

“Huh,” Sam mused. “I guess Anna’s security patch worked. Let’s see what their plan of attack is.”

***

Patrick tore another strip from his shirt and pressed the makeshift bandage against Matt’s shoulder. The bleeding was finally slowing down, but he was still soaking through too many strips of cloth for Patrick’s comfort.

The fact that he was bleeding at all was too much for Patrick’s comfort.

“Hey,” he said when Matt’s eyes began to roll closed. “Hey! Stay with me! You’re not allowed to go to sleep, understand?”

Matt blinked bleary eyes up at Patrick. “Hey, man,” he said, a goofy, tired smile crossing his lips. “How’sit goin’?”

“It was going a lot better before you got yourself shot.”

Matt blinked again. “Oops. My bad.”

Steven leaned over to Patrick’s side to speak without being overheard, either by the robbers or by their patient. “He’s starting to slur his words. We need to get him out of here.”

“No, really?” Patrick scoffed. “Thanks so much for that brilliant trauma diagnosis, Dr. Webber.”

“Hey,” Steven said, voice calm. “I know this is stressful, but don’t take it out on me. I’m on your side here.”

“No yer not.”

Patrick and Matt blinked and looked down at Matt, who didn’t seem to be aware he had spoken. “Matt?” Patrick asked. “What did you say?”

“He’s getting delirious, too,” Steven worried.

Matt seemed to come back to the present again. “Oh! No, I meant wha I said.” He looked over to Patrick and tried to whisper, but just ended up talking normally. “He’s got a crush on your wife. An’ her bes’ frien’ is encouraging it. Maxie tol’ me so.”

Patrick forced himself not to punch Steven in the face. “Matt, I’m sure this is just the blood loss talking. So why don’t you save your strength and not say anything else?”

“Ohhhhhh, nope!” Matt’s head lolled back and forth in an attempt to shake it. “Maxie tol’ me so, an’ I agreed with her. So we came up with a plan. But shh! I’m not suppos’ta tell. She’ll hurt me if I do. Maxie’s tiny, but scary.”

Patrick snorted. “That’s the second time you’ve called your ex-girlfriend scary. And what are you doing conspiring with your _ex_ -girlfriend, anyway?”

“I nev’r sai’ we were conspiring,” Matt protested weakly.

Despite the accusations that had been leveled, Steven chuckled slightly. “You and Maxie are the textbook definition of conspiring, sorry to say.”

Patrick suddenly got an all-too-clear idea of just _what_ Matt and Maxie would be conspiring about, the only thing they still had in common: their family.

Him, Robin, and Emma.

“Oh, tell me you and Maxie weren’t trying to use the Bachelor Auction to set me and Robin up,” Patrick groaned.

“Okay, I won’t.”

Steven snorted trying to hold back his laughter. Patrick glared at him, as Matt’s _other_ words became clearer as well. “You know,” Patrick said quietly. “You may be my boss, but don’t think for a second that I won’t come after you if you try to take advantage of Robin.”

Steven sobered immediately, leveling Patrick with the same annoyingly cool gaze he always used at the hospital whenever he was in Chief of Staff mode. “I’m not taking advantage or anyone or anything. I’ve just been a friend to an amazing woman who’s needed a friend. If she wants anything more from me, that’s up to her. But just so there’s no misunderstanding, if she wants to pursue something, I’d be a fool to say no.”

“She’s not free to _pursue_ anything,” Patrick said through gritted teeth, checking the bandage on Matt’s shoulder as a distraction from the increasingly strong desire to punch his boss. At least this time it would be for the right reasons.

“That’s up to her, wouldn’t you say?”

There was nothing Patrick could say to that, because as much as he hated it, he knew Steven was right; Robin was still moving ahead with the divorce, and there didn’t seem to be anything Patrick could do to change her mind.

“I don’t know,” Matt interrupted. “I actually think Maxie thinks it’s up to her, not Robin. She’s pretty convinced that Robin can’t make desh—decu—choices for herself anymore. You can’t either,” he frowned up at Patrick. “You suck at winning back your wife. So we to make your choices for you. And thus, tonight!”

Patrick and Steven both hastily quieted Matt down; setting aside that he needed to save his energy and focus on healing, any sudden, loud noises were likely to not be looked upon very kindly by the men holding them hostage. If it weren’t such a sad reflection of his current situation, Patrick might actually feel happy that Matt had such a vested interest in his family that he took steps to keep them together. It meant that he and Matt had really, finally become brothers.

But Patrick was glad that Matt and Maxie’s plan had failed, because if Maxie had been successful in persuading Robin to come to the Bachelor Auction, then she would have been taken hostage (again) as well. If nothing else, Patrick could comfort himself knowing that Robin was safe, and that no matter what happened tonight, Emma would at least have one of her parents.

Robin was nowhere near the hotel tonight, and that would have to be enough to get Patrick through the crisis.

***

 _“You want to do what?! Have you gone completely insane?”  
_

“Sam!” Maxie hissed into the phone. “Not so loud!”

After securing the guard with plastic ties and duct tape across his mouth – just in case he woke up and tried calling out for help – Robin, Maxie, and Lulu and retreated back to the service elevator, as far away from the main ballroom as they could get. They needed to talk out loud and strategize. They’d called Sam and Kristina, testing out Anna’s security patch, to fill them in on what they were up to, only to be shocked by the announcement that both women were hiding in the kitchen, ready to coordinate a single attack from multiple points of entry.

Robin hated it when she thought like her parents.

 _“Do you really think this will work?”  
_

Lulu shrugged at Kristina’s question even though she couldn’t see it. “Well, at this point, anything’s better than Maxie’s ‘Three Stooges’ plan.”

“Hey!” Maxie protested. “It worked, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, and no one was more surprised than you!”

Robin held up a hand. “Can we not do this now? Let’s at least save it for when you two can yell at top volume, because this whole whispered fighting thing that you two have been doing all night is really getting old.”

“Sorry, Robin,” they both answered meekly.

 _“Getting back to Kristina’s question, is this really the only thing you can think of?”  
_

“Look,” Robin said. “We’re pretty much out of options, and it’s not like we had time to come up with a plan for what to do once we got to the ballroom before now. Our best bet is to take advantage of the fact that the robbers actually seem to be smart enough to keep all the hostages centered in the middle of the room. We can sneak around the edges of the ballroom under the tables until we’re each close enough to one of the guards, and then let off a stun-grenade right in front of them. We take them down as soon as the flash-bangs go off and disorient them, and then we turn everything over to the _real_ cops and be _done_ with this mess.”

 _“Yeah, speaking of. Maxie, it’s a good thing you went with floor-length table cloths tonight.”  
_

Maxie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because when I designed the event, what I was really thinking about was ease of infiltration!”

 _“I’m just saying! This could be a whole lot worse, even if this plan is shaky at best.”_

Maxie leaned back on her haunches and sighed. “I hate to say it Sam, but we’re completely out of time. They’ve already shot somebody, and that guy said they’re going to shoot more people if their demands aren’t met in the next few minutes. If nothing else, we can create enough chaos for Mac, Lucky, and Dante to overpower them.”

“And we have to do something now,” Lulu added, “because they’re going to notice in a minute that they’re down one guard.”

 _“You’re right, you’re right. This is our best chance. How do Kristina and I do this, though? You’ve got all the grenades.”_

Robin quickly went to scan the ballroom again, then returned to the phone. “It looks like we took out the guard who would have been standing between us and the kitchen area. Lulu can move around to you guys, and then meet Maxie to take out the guard by the entrance doors.”

 _“You’re not seriously thinking of taking the leader down on your own.”_

“I’m not injured like you,” Robin said, not without sympathy, “and I’m better at hand-to-hand than Maxie and Lulu. No offense.”

Lulu waved her off. “None taken. Although when all this is over, I think we need to form some sort of Kick-Ass Women’s Club.”

There was soft laughter at both ends of the phone. Robin pulled the stun grenades out of the satchel and handed them out: one to her, one to Maxie, and two to Lulu so she could bring one to Sam and Kristina.

“Alright,” Robin said. “We’re out of time. Let’s go.”

***

Lulu headed off in one direction while Robin and Maxie went in another. It seemed that the easiest way to get into position would be to crawl beneath the second-innermost ring of tables; they were still removed from the main group of hostages, and they had an additional round of tables protecting them from the guards’ sights. Robin and Maxie would get to a table off to the side of the stage together, and then go their separate ways so Maxie could meet up with Lulu and Robin could continue on to the bar where the leader had taken up his post.

So far, everything had gone smoothly. The tables were wide enough to easily accommodate two women beneath them, and the tablecloths hid them entirely. They could move with virtual impunity because no one in the room, least of all the hostage takers, were expecting them to be there.

At this point, the element of surprise was their greatest weapon.

But as they prepared to would split off, Robin heard Maxie gasp and nearly banged her head against the underside of the table from jolting up in shock. “What?” she hissed.

Maxie was breathing erratically, one hand clutching at the tablecloth. “Matt,” was all she whimpered.

Robin crawled to her side and gently pried the tablecloth away from her cousin’s hand. Lifting carefully, she bent down and saw what had scared Maxie so: lying less than three feet away from her, bloody and barely conscious, was her ex-boyfriend.

It looked like they had figured out which hostage had been shot.

“Maxie,” Robin said. “I need you to listen to me. The best thing you can do for Matt is to get to Lulu and set off the grenade. We _have_ to get him to a hospital as soon as possible, and that means we have to end this as soon as possible.”

Maxie jerked her head in a nod, but her eyes were still wide with panic. “I can’t…I don’t…”

“I know.” Robin hugged Maxie tightly, trying to sooth some of her anxiety away. This was the worst time Maxie could have picked to fall to pieces. “Listen to me, I know how worried you are. But right now we are the _only_ ones who can help him. Patrick and Steven, they’re not enough. We have to get Matt out of here _now_.”

Swallowing her sobs, Maxie nodded. “Right,” she breathed. “Right.” Resolved, she squeezed Robin’s hands. “Okay, I’m going. You’ll call so we can all sync up our attacks once you’re in position?”

Robin nodded. “I will. Now go.”

Maxie nodded once more, sucked in a deep breath, and made her escape to the next table and continued on her way to meet up with Lulu. Robin stayed where she was for a moment, leaning back down to peek out from the tablecloth.

There, with his hands pressed against Matt’s shoulder to stem the blood loss, was Patrick.

Robin was tempted to let him know that she was there, to give him some reassurance that everything would be okay in a few minutes. No matter what else had passed between them, she would never wish for Patrick to be faced with losing another part of his family.

She swallowed hard against the thought that that was the same thing Maxie and Matt had been trying to prevent.

Patrick looked so worried, the lines around his eyes deeper than she had seen them since he’d pulled her out of that well. She’d forgotten how deeply Patrick could feel it when he was emotionally invested in something. And Patrick had already lived through someone he loved getting shot in a hostage situation once before; this couldn’t be bringing back good memories for him.

They’d been so good, so in love after that. They’d even managed to overcome Jerry Jack’s sadistic little game with her and Nikolas. But they’d fallen apart after that, even if they’d eventually found their way back to each other. Just like Patrick and Matt, she mused, dropping the cloth and concealing herself again. They’d had their ups and downs too since finding out they were brothers.

…It had been her and Patrick and Emma that had finally brought Matt around to the idea of being part of a family.

No matter what, they were all a family; her and Patrick and Emma, and Maxie, and Mac, and Matt. They were a family. They were _her_ family.

She wasn’t going to let these monsters hurt them anymore. Any monsters – Lisa, the robbers, it didn’t matter. These people were _hers_ and no one was allowed to take them away.

Robin continued crawling towards the table she needed, a new sense of determination washing over her. It had been her family who had given her the abilities to do everything she’d done tonight – weapons and combat training with her parents, survival and police tactics training with Mac – because they knew something about the world that Robin still had trouble admitting: there are bad people in the world who hurt others, and she needed to be able to protect herself.

Everybody thought that Robin was the black sheep of her family, that she was the one who hadn’t followed in everyone’s footsteps. But the truth was, Robin came from a family of protectors, and Robin was a protector, too. As a doctor, her job was to protect her patients; as a mother, her job was to protect Emma.

And right now, because of her family, her job was to protect everybody in this room.

She reached the table she needed; the lead hostage taker was so fixated on watching the crowd in the center of the room that he hadn’t paid attention to what was happening five feet in front of him. He thought he had planned everything perfectly. He thought he was so good at this.

Robin was better.

She pulled out her cell phone and conference-called Maxie and Sam, ready to synchronize their attacks. They had one shot at this, and Robin had no intention of failing now. Not after coming so far. She pulled the locking pin out of the grenade and got ready to throw it up at just the right time; they wanted to focus the flashes as much on the robbers as possible. Then, it would simply be a matter of tackling them when they were blind and disoriented, securing them with plastic ties, and handing them over to Mac and the rest of the police.

Although if Patrick ever called her boring again, she wouldn’t simply divorce him; she would make sure they never found his body.

***

The police cars still surrounded the outside of the Metro court, even though all of the robbers had been caught and taken down to the precinct for booking. The last ambulance had pulled out a few minutes ago with one of the robbers they’d knocked unconscious. Those two would be taken to GH under a police watch, and once cleared, would join the rest of their crew at the PCPD.

Robin and Maxie stood at the edge of the police barricade, her winter coat wrapped tightly around her body. She almost couldn’t believe it was over. Once the grenades had gone off, everything had happened so fast that Robin still had trouble wrapping her mind around it. The robbers had gone down easily, not expecting any sort of attack, let alone such a homespun one. In the end, it wasn’t the element of surprise or the weapons that had given them the edge; it was the simple fact that no one had been expecting a bunch of civilian women who were making up their plan as they went along.

“Hey,” Lulu said, coming up beside her and leaning against the barricade. “Mac finally finish yelling at you?”

Robin chuckled. “I think he’ll be ready to go another round once he gets statements from the guards who shot at us.”

“What about you?” Maxie asked, siding closer to Robin so Lulu could also lean back on the barricade. “Who yelled loudest, Lucky or Dante?”

“Tracy, surprisingly,” Lulu said. “I think she takes offense to me getting my Spencer on.”

“Ah, remember when you used to call her your step-monster?” Maxie teased. “How the mighty have fallen.”

Lulu bumped her shoulder against Maxie’s. “Hey, you’d better be talking about Tracy.”

They all laughed, though Robin sobered quickly when Sam and Kristina walked over to them. “Hey,” Robin said. “I would have thought you’d go in the ambulance with Jason.”

“Yeah, well.” Sam rolled her eyes and gripped her sister’s shoulders affectionately. “I had a much bigger problem to deal with.”

Robin’s eyes widened in understanding. “I guess Alexis wasn’t happy with either of you, huh?”

“Nope,” Kristina said. “I haven’t seen Mom yell like that in a while. Or had her hug me that tightly. I think she dislocated something.”

“Speaking of injuries…”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Sam waved off Robin’s concern. “After this I’m going straight to GH to get my arm looked at. I promise.”

Robin smiled ruefully. “Hey, I can’t help it. You’re on my strike team. I’ve got to make sure you’re in top shape.”

“Not to mention you’re kind of a worrier by nature,” Maxie added.

“Not a worrier,” Robin corrected. “A protector.”

“Ooh,” Lulu said. “That’d be a good name for our group: ‘The Protectors.’ It can be like, our superhero team.” At everyone’s incredulous looks, she chuckled, “what, you thought I was kidding about starting a kick-ass club?”

Kristina buried her face in her hands. “What did I get myself into?”

Everyone laughed again, and Lulu added slyly, “Well, from the looks of things, you got quite the hug and lecture from my brother.”

Sam turned wide eyes to her sister. “Really? Krissy, is there anything between you and Ethan we need to talk about?”

“No!”

“So what about you, Robin?” Maxie asked. “After this, are you going home to give your baby a hug and wait for Mac to yell at you some more?”

Robin had been considering this since the night ended. Maxie was right; the first thing she was going to do was go home and just hold Emma for a while. But then…

“Actually,” she said slowly, “I think I’m going to go to GH for a while. I want to check on Matt.”

Lulu and Maxie exchanged a look. “Not just him, though, right?” Maxie waited impatiently for Robin to answer.

“No, Maxie,” Robin sighed in defeat. “I want to check on Patrick too. Ah!” She held up a hand to stop Maxie’s whoop of success. “And by the way, don’t even think we’re done discussing you trying to manipulate my life choices. But,” she confessed, “I realized something tonight.”

“That you’re more like your mother than you realized?” Maxie asked.

“That you can kick some serious butt when you want to?” Lulu tried.

“That you’re surrounded by insane people?” Sam asked.

“ _No_ ,” Robin answered. “I realized that my family matters more than anything else, and that everything we did tonight, we did out of love.” She smiled softly. “I guess I’ve been forgetting how much power love can give you when you let it.”

Sam came up to Robin’s other side and sat against the barricade, waving Kristina over to join them. The five women sat there, staring out at the hotel where so much had happened in barely an hour. Robin would never have thought it before, but they had made a pretty formidable team.

Lulu was right. They were all protectors. Of their loved ones, of their friends, of the city. Together, they had saved the day.

Sometimes, love was enough.

*END*


End file.
